Page 76 of Not So Very Sensible

“Poor thing. She died of cancer a year or two ago.”

She had? Poor Ethan. Her heart pang quickly squeezed into something else. Still, he’d moved on awfully quickly, so maybe it wasn’t—

“I don’t think it’s healthy for us to be gossiping like this,” Annabelle interrupted.

Ellie nodded. “You might not like the guy that much, but you have to feel sorry for him.”

“Do you know him?” Jordan asked.

“Ethan?” she asked.

“No, Neville.”

It took her a second before she realised. Oh, so Neville had been the one who had been widowed. That’s right. Ethan had told her that before. Her heart jumped a little—Ethan wasn’t so bad after all!—then she realised that everyone was still looking at her. “Um, no. I’ve never met him before in my life.” Well, she’d seen him in close proximity last night, but nobody had introduced her, so technically they had not met. “But, I, uh, have come to know some of the other family members, and I don’t think it’s fair to blame the entire family for one man’s poor policies.”

“Huh. Who?”

“I, uh, met his son Ethan at the Blue Mountains a few weeks ago. He was nice. He wants to be a youth pastor.” Well, he’d said that, even though his sister had denied it. Who knew if it was true?

Katie frowned. “Why are you defending him? I thought you didn’t like him.”

This was not the time or place to discuss this. It must be her cue to leave. “Sorry, folks. I just remembered I need to go.”

Annabelle eyed her thoughtfully. But said nothing. Praise God.

Because if anyone wanted to ask her more, she might crack. And not for nothing had she cultivated this mask of serenity. After all, her life was supposed to be about helping others. Not about others needing to help her.

“This is insane. No, it’s worse than insane. It’s wrong.”

Ethan eyed his family—his sister, father, and brother—who all stared back with smirks of indifference. It was bad enough that they’d hijacked his Saturday evening with the surprise engagement party, but now he was having to forgo church attendance for this family council meeting. Dad was shooting back to Sydney midmorning, so when Ethan had demanded this meeting, this was the only time Dad could spare.

Thank God Lucinda and her family weren’t staying here, but at a nearby hotel known as the location where they’d filmed the Traitors TV show. Very apt.

His father yawned. “Look, Son, I can appreciate that you might not have liked being surprised by that, but it’s for your own good.”

“You mean your own good. You want someone to distract the voters from Rob’s latest debacle.” A speeding ticket in a school zone was never a good look.

“Hey, I resent that,” Rob protested.

“No, you resemble that. Again, I don’t understand why we haven’t matched Lucinda up with Rob. They deserve each other.”

“Hey, I’d be up for that,” Rob said, “but she won’t have me.”

“And I won’t have her.” Ethan folded his arms.

One glimpse of the hurt on Ellie’s face—that sense of betrayal—had dug new resolve. He couldn’t play along with this ridiculous charade anymore. And while he hadn’t wanted to embarrass Lucinda’s family last night—and yes, he didn’t want to embarrass his dad or look like a fool himself—enough was enough.

“I’m going to speak to her tonight. I am speaking to her tonight,” he added quickly, when that first statement did not sound firm enough. “And I’ll be letting those who need to know that I’m not having anything to do with this anymore.”

“Son, you’re making a mistake.”

“No, the mistake was agreeing to this in the first place.”

His father eyed him for a long moment from under hooded brows. “Don’t act too hastily, Son. You need to think about the long-term ramifications of this.”

“That’s exactly what I’m thinking of. There is no way I want to be married to someone like Lucinda for the rest of my days.”

“You’d rather be married to a woman who has blue hair?”