“Okay, let’s say I go for it and ask her out,” he said. “Where would I take her? She’s obviously used to nice places. It’s not as if I can afford some fancy restaurant.”
“Which works in your favor, since fancy is in short supply on Seaview Key,” Luke replied. “Maybe you should just worry about getting to know her. You have the perfect opportunity with this fund-raising drive. You’ll be together all the time.”
“Yeah, thanks for that, by the way. Real subtle.”
Luke laughed. “After listening to you yammering on just now, I’m thinking you need all the help you can get.”
“Bite me,” Seth retorted, getting to his feet and heading out.
Why he’d expected understanding from the one man on earth he’d always trusted to have his back was beyond him. Then, again, maybe he’d gotten exactly what he’d come here for, a much-needed kick in the butt, and a reminder that he was making excuses for not going after Abby, rather than seizing an opportunity that had unexpectedly come his way.
Seth was on his way to The Fish Tale to grab lunch and hopefully a glimpse of Abby when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID, then sighed.
“What’s up, Meredith?” he asked his oldest sister, thinking the timing couldn’t have been more apt given his conversation with Luke just now.
“It’s Laura,” she said predictably, referring to their middle sister. “You have to talk to her, Seth. She’s going to drag me into court over Mom and Dad’s estate.”
“Not my fight,” he stated quietly. In fact, he was determined to stay out of it. It had gotten ugly the minute Laura had realized that his parents had left Meredith in charge of doling out their inheritances. They’d done it wisely, in his opinion, since Laura tended to squander every penny that came her way.
“Please, Seth. I need you to make her see reason,” Meredith pleaded.
“Can’t be done,” he told her. “You know Laura when she thinks she’s being mistreated.”
“You mean when she’s being greedy,” Meredith corrected. “You get why Mom and Dad did what they did. Why can’t she?”
“Because it was aimed directly at her,” Seth suggested. “I don’t need a dime from the estate. I figure anything that comes my way is a bonus. Laura is convinced that she’s entitled to every penny and she wants her share now. It’s ironic in a way. Mom and Dad raised her to feel entitled, then did this when they saw how she turned out.”
“I can’t cave in on this. She’ll blow everything before the end of the year,” Meredith said in frustration.
“You can’t stop her from living her life the way she wants to,” Seth reminded her. “I’m not sure why Mom and Dad thought they could control her from the grave, even though they had the best intentions. All they did was put you in the middle.”
“If we go to court, the lawyers will end up with more money than any of us.”
“Remind Laura of that,” he suggested. “Maybe that will get through to her.”
“You do it,” she said. “She won’t listen to me. If I say the sky is blue, she’ll argue with me even with the evidence right over her head.”
Seth chuckled, knowing it was true. “I’m not the best peacemaker,” he told her, then gave in. “But I’ll try.”
“Thank you.”
“You could just defy Mom and Dad,” he suggested. “Give her the money.”
“And have our parents haunt me from the grave? They would, you know.”
Seth smiled. “Entirely possible,” he agreed. “I suppose I wouldn’t take any chances, either.”
“So you will call Laura?”
“Yes,” he agreed reluctantly.
“Now, before she gets a lawyer involved?”
“As soon as I hang up with you,” he promised.
“And you’ll let me know what she says?”
“I’ll give you the censored version,” he told her. He suspected Laura was going to give him quite an earful.
It took calls to Laura’s house, her office and then her cell phone, but he finally caught up with her. She was the middle child and he sometimes wondered if that wasn’t why she had all these issues with Meredith and, at times, with him.
“I suppose you’re calling to tell me why I shouldn’t sue the pants off of Meredith to get what’s coming to me,” she said as soon as she picked up.
“Lovely to speak to you, too,” Seth said.
It took a minute for his sarcasm to sink in. “Sorry,” she said eventually. “It’s just that she makes me so darn mad.”
“You do know she didn’t make these rules,” he suggested.
“Yeah, Mom and Dad were looking out for me, yada-yada-yada.”
“You do have a nasty habit of spending beyond your means,” Seth suggested. “Isn’t that why Jason divorced you, because you kept piling up credit card bills he couldn’t pay and refused to listen when he told you it had to stop?”
“Is that what he said?” she demanded furiously. “Of course he’d want to get you on his side. Men always stick together. Crazy me for thinking my brother might back me up.”
“Was he lying?” Seth asked patiently, knowing perfectly well that he hadn’t been. Jason had shown the bills to Seth when Seth had tried to mediate before the talk of divorce had gone too far. He’d been completely thrown by his sister’s lack of control.
“Okay, no, he probably had a valid point,” Laura admitted. “But he’d told me he wanted me to be happy. Shopping makes me happy.”
Seth nearly groaned. That was precisely the attitude about money that made him crazy. “Look, that’s over and done with. Surely you can understand, though, why Mom and Dad wanted Meredith to manage the estate? You can’t be trusted to handle money.”
“What about you? Do you think it’s fair that she’s in charge of your inheritance, too?
