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“I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but perhaps you need to. Francesca, lovely as she is, may simply be one of those people whocan’tbe happy, no matter what the circumstances. I wish it weren’t true, but there it is.”
“No,” I whimpered to myself, then bit my comments back.
Tell her she’s wrong, I wanted to screech. Tell her that’s not me. Tell her that while we have so many challenges, we can absolutely be happy. Perfectly, beautifully, blissfully in love, in fact. We’ve had it before, and we can have it again!
Or maybe I was just trying to convince myself.
“Did you hear something?” Imogene wondered.
I sucked in a deep breath and backed away from the door, on instinct plastering myself against the wainscoting when the door opened and I saw Imogene’s head poke out.
She looked down the opposite direction and halfway toward me before backing into the office again without another glance.
I exhaled, though I wasn’t exactly sure why. Why shouldn’t she see me?
Why wasIfeeling like the intruder here?
I listened to the sound of her shoes clipping again across the floor.
“There’s nothing out there,” Imogene said. “Nothing at all.”
Xavier didn’t respond.
“As I was saying, though, look at everything you’ve offered her,” Imogene continued as if nothing had interrupted them. “The clothes, the houses, your entire life. Not to mention the fact that you, Kip, really are a catch. Horridly handsome—don’t give me that look, youare—and impossibly charming when you want to be.”
I practically bared my teeth. Thisbitch.
In the back of my mind, I could easily picture all my sisters’ faces at those comments. Joni was probably removing her earrings, Kate her glasses while all four of them readied themselves to pounce.
God, I wished they were here.
“This life is one most women would salivate after,” Imogene said. “And you’ve offered it after knowing her for what, six months?”
“Five years,” Xavier corrected her testily, showing for the first time a bit of annoyance. “A little more now, actually.”
I smirked. Take that, you snooty cow.
“Right, of course,” Imogene corrected herself. “Except…”
“Except what?”
“Except, well, it hasn’treallybeen five years, has it? You had a brief fling with the girl—and I’m not judging, Kip, really, I’m not. We’ve all had our larks, haven’t we? Only, that means that most of that time since, you didn’t know each other at all, did you? Meanwhile, she goes and has a child without saying a word. Putting aside how dreadful that really was, she also made things so much harder for herself than they needed to be. Now, I ask you, does that sound like someone whowantsto be happy?”
Say no, I begged silently. Say you understood why I did it. Say we’ve evolved so much from that first revelation, that we mean more to each other and can get through anything together.
“I just don’t know anymore.” Xavier’s voice was weary, as tired as my own heart felt. “I love her. I do. But everyone I love dies, eventually, don’t they? My mother, Lucy, Father. Now Henry.”
I clutched my chest. Oh God, that couldn’t be how he really felt, could it? I hadn’t ever considered that the amount of death and loss Xavier had experienced would have affected him that way, but now it made sense.
He gripped us so tightly it hurt.
Maybe it was because he was afraid of losing us.
“Maybe being with me is killing her too,” he said. “Maybe you’re right, in a way. She doesn’t belong here.”
I silently hiccupped back a sob. No! He had to know it had nothing to do with him!
“Kip, listen to me,” Imogene told him. “If she can’t see what’s good about you and be happy with it by now, she never will. And you deserve to be with someone who appreciates you for how wonderful you truly are. Someone who is strong enough to take on this life, with all its challenges.”
