“And then what?” Abby asked reasonably. “It seems to me your parents knew what they were doing.”
“Yeah, I think so, too,” he admitted. “That doesn’t make it any easier to see her hurting.” He glanced at Abby. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Listening, I guess. Not making me feel like a louse for not bailing her out.”
“What you did took guts,” she told him. “It would have been easy to give in, then turn your back on the consequences. You’re trying to help. So were your parents, even though it sounds as if they were at least partly responsible for Laura’s attitude toward money. Your older sister must feel terrible, too.”
“Meredith’s a wreck,” he acknowledged. “She’s ready to cave in, let Laura have the money and call it a day.”
“But that wouldn’t be the end of it. It sounds as if Laura needs help with her problem. She’s right. It probably is an addiction. She wouldn’t be the first woman—or man, for that matter—to go wild with money. And I suspect she’s far from the first to have it cost her a marriage.”
She studied Seth for a minute. “Does all this have something to do with why you’re so sensitive to financial stuff with me?”
“Sure,” he said at once. “Having money can be great, but it can also change people. My parents were driven to stash away what to them seemed like a small fortune so they could leave behind something for the three of us. I didn’t want or need some nice inheritance. I’d have preferred it if they were around more. Meredith gets what they sacrificed and appreciates it, but not Laura. She just feels entitled.”
Abby frowned. “And you see me in whom? Your folks? Laura?” Neither was particularly flattering.
“No way,” he said fervently. “But at first, I wasn’t so sure how having money had affected you. It made me skittish, no question about it.”
“And now?”
He smiled. “I’ve discovered that you may be the most sensible, grounded woman I know.”
“Thank you for saying that. I didn’t always have money, Seth. I’ve told you that. I don’t think having it has changed me. I certainly don’t want it to. And if you’re worried about whether I’m anything like your sister, you can go inside and check my closets.”
“Aren’t they in that room that we’ve agreed is off-limits?” he teased, lightening up for the first time since the sensitive conversation had begun.
“I’ll make an exception for this,” she told him, chuckling. “But I can tell you what you’ll find. They’re half-empty. I have a few designer things because they were expected with the restaurant clientele, but you’ll mostly find things just like this.” She gestured toward the jeans and T-shirt she’d put on after her shower.
“Good to know,” he said, his eyes darkening with desire as he took a lingering survey. “You look great, by the way. My kind of woman.”
Abby allowed herself a smile at that. It was the sweetest, most promising thing he’d ever said to her. Maybe they were finally edging toward that relationship of substance she’d hardly dared to imagine. She couldn’t help wondering, though, how many more hurdles they’d have to face before Seth acted on the unmistakable desire that was always simmering between them. Or what it would take to allay his deep-rooted fear that her money would somehow come between them.
13
By Saturday Abby knew that Hannah and Luke had to be back from their trip to New York, but she’d heard no news about how the cancer screenings had gone. It was one more reminder that she and Hannah weren’t back on their old footing, not like the days when they’d been on the phone a half dozen times a day to share confidences about everything going on in their lives.
She debated barging in on Hannah and pushing for answers, but that didn’t seem wise. Hannah had to come to her.
But, Abby argued with herself, what if the news had been bad and she needed support, but couldn’t bring herself to ask for it? She tried reminding herself that it was unlikely that Hannah even had the results yet, but surely she’d developed instincts about how things had gone.
“I’m at a loss,” she told Seth when she met him for Sunday lunch at The Fish Tale. Grandma Jenny, Hannah and Luke, and Kelsey and her husband had begged off this week, according to Seth. She found that even more worrisome. “Has Luke said anything? Were the test results bad?”
“He hasn’t said a word to me. They may not even know the results yet.”
“And I don’t suppose you’ve thought to ask,” she said with frustration.
“I figured Luke would tell me whatever he wanted me to know,” he said.
“Of course you did.” It was a typically male attitude, she thought irritably. Even she subscribed to it on occasion, but not when it came to something this important.
Seth frowned. “If you’re really worried about Hannah, go by to see her.”
“We’re not exactly there yet,” Abby admitted.
“Thanksgiving’s later this week. You’ll see her then,” he reminded her.
“That’s hardly the right occasion to get into the state of her health. From what she told me, Thanksgiving dinner is bound to be chaotic.”
“Then I don’t know what to tell you,” he said, clearly giving up any attempt at a solution and apparently tired of the topic.
She regarded him with amusement. “It’s a good thing you have lots of other things going for you, because you’re not being real helpful right now.”
“Hey, I’m a guy. I don’t meddle. That was my best attempt at being supportive.”
Abby shook her head. “And it was a pitiful one,” she chided. “You’re Luke’s friend and I know you’re a compassionate man. What you did for Ella Mae demonstrated that. I also know you care about Hannah. This situation should be on your radar.”
“It is on my radar. I’m worried about her, too,” he insisted. “But there’s this whole other layer to your worrying.
