“It was an addiction,” she said. “Seriously. Like drugs or something.”
“But you’re cured now?” Seth asked skeptically.
“I am. I see how messed up my life was because of all that shopping. I had closets filled with stuff I didn’t need or even want. It was crazy.”
Seth could hardly disagree with that. He wanted to believe she’d honestly changed, but how could he? All of her husband’s threats and pleas hadn’t forced her to get control of her spending habit. Why should he believe her now?
“These credit card bills of yours,” he began. “How recent are the charges?”
Silence greeted the question. “What do you mean?” she asked in a small voice.
“It’s an easy question. Are these old charges or recent ones?”
“I’ve bought a few things recently,” she admitted. “Just things I needed to fix up my new apartment and to look good for work.”
“You didn’t have enough furniture in that huge house you insisted Jason buy for you?”
“It was all wrong for the apartment,” she responded defensively.
“And the clothes, when we’ve already established that you had a closet filled with things you hadn’t worn?” he asked wearily.
“They were either too casual or too fancy for work,” she claimed.
“How much have you spent in, say, the last month, Laura?”
“A thousand dollars, maybe a little more,” she revealed eventually.
“How much more?”
“Okay, closer to three thousand.”
Seth heaved a sigh. “And you think that’s proof you’ve changed? Does your attorney agree? If he does, you need a new attorney, one who’s not just ripping you off.”
Laura began crying in earnest. “Seth, please, talk to Meredith. There’s plenty to pay these bills with enough left for me to start over.”
“Start over doing what? Going shopping? Sorry, I can’t do that. And you need to have this request for a deposition withdrawn, understood? I’m not being dragged into the middle of this. And you’re just throwing good money after bad, if you keep pursuing it.”
“I hate you,” she shouted as he hung up.
Seth closed his eyes. Yeah, he got that. If there had been even a tiny hint that his sister had really mended her ways and was trying to get her life back on track, he’d have paid her blasted bills himself. How could he, though, when she clearly wasn’t even trying, just looking for an easy way out of the mess she’d gotten herself into. He shook his head and sympathized with his parents just a little. Tough love really was a pain.
* * *
Abby noticed that Seth was awfully quiet when he showed up to help her finish painting. He was brooding about something, but she wasn’t entirely sure whether it was her place to pry.
She put him to work in the guest room, then returned to the master bedroom to finish in there. The fact that he didn’t complain or utter even a single taunting remark about that was more proof of his lousy mood.
She finished the trim, cleaned up her brushes and took a shower, while he kept right on working, his silence deafening.
Once she was cleaned up, she popped a homemade lasagna into the oven, then went into the guest room.
“Dinner will be ready soon, if you want to wash up.”
“Sure,” he said. “I’m almost done in here.”
She stood in the doorway, hands on hips when he didn’t even turn to look at her.
“Okay, that’s it. Put down the brush right now.”
He finally glanced her way, his expression startled. “What?”
“You’ve been fretting about something since you got here. I swore I wasn’t going to pry, but I’ve changed my mind. I want to know what’s going on. Did something happen with a patient today?”
His expression shut down even more, something she hadn’t thought possible.
“No, nothing like that.”
“Then what?”
“I’m not going to dump my problems on you,” he said stiffly.
“You already have. You’re here, but you’d clearly rather be somewhere else. Talk to me.”
He finally met her gaze. “You’ll regret asking,” he warned.
Abby frowned. “Why would you say that? We’re friends. If something’s worrying you, maybe I can help. At the very least I can be a sounding board.”
“But we’re the kind of friends who joke around, maybe flirt a little.”
She had never been more insulted in her life. “If that really is all you believe is going on between us, maybe you should leave.”
He seemed genuinely startled. “You want me to go?”
“If you think our relationship is that shallow, then yes, I do.”
He stood there, the paintbrush in his hands dripping onto the drop cloth on the floor, looking so thoroughly bewildered that Abby almost took pity on him and retracted her words. Instead, she bit her tongue and waited to see what he would do. She sensed this was a real turning point for them. Either something of substance would evolve or the game would end.
He finally nodded. “Let me clean up and I’ll join you on the porch.”
“Is this the sort of conversation that could use a glass of beer or wine?” she asked. “Or will iced tea do?”
He smiled ever-so-slightly. “Tea will do.”
Abby rocked as she waited for him on the porch. When he came outside, he sat in the chair next to hers, but for once he didn’t set the rocker into motion.
“I had a conversation with one of my sisters earlier,” he finally blurted. “It didn’t go well.”
“I see,” she said, though that didn’t explain much. “Everything okay back home?”
“Hardly.” He took a deep breath and in halting, frustrated words explained the situation. “So here I am, caught in the middle. I feel like a heel for not helping Laura out, either by lending her some money or siding with her against our older sister, but I know neither of those solutions is really the answer.”
“It sounds to me as if you took the only stance you could,” Abby told him.
“Then why do I feel so lousy?”
“Because you’re a good guy. You love your sister and want her to straighten out her life, but you can’t make that happen, Seth. It’s up to her.”
“She is right
