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Jinx looked up from her plate. “I forgot about that.”
“He’ll be bringing his fiancée home to meet the fam in a couple weeks.”
Good, Jinx thought. That would give her a little time to see where this thing with Logan was going. Or if it was not going anywhere. “Kind of fast, wouldn’t you say?”
“Not really. They were seeing each other for a while but didn’t tell anyone back home. Not that he has much to do with us peons here in the North Fork anymore now that he is a big deal money manager in Chicago.”
“Said the dynamo with more businesses than I can count.” Jinx scooped up the last of her eggs. “Her name is Regan, right? I guess you are the only one who has met her so far. It was when you went out to Chicago to meet with that company for your new brownie products, right? Did you like her?”
“Yes. She was perfect for Vic. She is a lawyer. Their firms apparently do things together or something like that.” Natalie poured Jinx more coffee. “Okay, enough avoidance. Time to tell big sis what you needed to talk about so badly.”
Jinx decided not to beat around the bush. “Logan Bennett.”
Natalie’s eyebrows formed a V. “What happened that you need to talk about him now after all these years?”
Leave it to her sister to be so direct. But that was Natalie. She had always been down to earth and did not play games. “I ran into him at Lexi’s wedding reception. He is a friend and business colleague of Hadley’s husband, so they invited him.”
Natalie studied her a moment. “And you two got together? Are you seeing him?”
She was not surprised Natalie would guess that. Jinx’s adoration of her big brother’s best friend had been pretty obvious to all. “This does not go anywhere but between us, promise?”
“Of course not. I promise.”
“I’m not sure how to define what happened between us. But, yes, we got together and I still care for him and I still don’t believe he betrayed Victor. You know there has always been an attraction there with Logan and me and—”
“Attraction?” Natalie shook her head. “You were flat-out in love with him. Sure, it might have been a youthful, naive love, but I was worried about you when he quit Wharton and went back to the West Coast. I saw how it affected you, how depressed and abandoned you felt. I thought you might even quit your first year at University of the Arts.”
Jinx looked away. “Yeah, I was so down and heartbroken the way he just ghosted without even saying goodbye.”
“But you refused to talk to me about it when I reached out to help you.”
“Because you were on Victor’s side. No one wanted to hear anything but Victor’s story.” Jinx bit into her apple turnover with more aggression than she’d intended.
Natalie tilted her head. “That is not entirely true. I tried to find out more.”
“I know. And that is exactly why I’m here now, and this time you will not refuse to share what you discovered.” Jinx finished her brownie, licked her fingers, and leaned back in her chair. “Since Victor broke up with Darla at the same time as his fight with Logan, I have to assume Logan’s ‘betrayal’ was related to that.”
Darla was a NoFo local who’d been Victor’s steady girl all through high school. The two had been prom king and queen and all that stuff that Jinx had been allergic to even back before she had found her niche in the arts university in Philadelphia. After high school, Victor went off to college and then grad school, and Darla went to work in a posh South Fork hair salon, but everyone believed they would be married as soon as Vic completed his studies and landed a good position.
“Yes, it was about Darla,” Natalie said. “And Vic’s ego was so wounded by being duped by his longtime girlfriend and the person he’d thought was his best friend that it fueled his refusal to talk about it to anyone.”
Jinx nodded. Her brother was the epitome of stubborn macho. “I remember you went to see what you could find out from Darla’s sister, Tess, who’d been a friend of yours, but when you got back you wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“Because you had already been so hurt by it all. I didn’t want to make it any worse for you. Remember, at the time you were only eighteen and not the most experienced when it came to guys and some of the selfish things they do for their egos.”
Jinx sipped her coffee and looked her sister in the eye. “Well, I’m all grown up now. So, I want you to tell me everything you know.”
Natalie took her time pouring herself another cup of coffee. “Only if we agree to some ground rules. You have a temper, Jinx, so promise me there will be no explosive reactions.”
“That bad, huh? Okay. No explosive reactions. Check.” Jinx made a mark with her finger on an invisible board.
“Second—if after you hear what I know you still have a different take on it, do not try to convince Victor of anything or cause an awkward scene at our family dinner when he comes home.”
“Okay. No talking to Victor about it.” Finger in the air. “Check. Anything else?”
“No, that’s it.” Natalie sighed and started in. “The situation came to a head during that cross-country motorcycle trip Vic organized with a group of friends.”
Jinx nodded. “The summer after their first year of grad school.”
