Page 8 of Mistaken Intention

“Lexi’s sister?” he says, and I wrestle against the familiar pain… the one that eats at me every moment of the day, gnawing at my soul.

“Yeah.”Josie… “How’s Ella?” I ask, to change the subject, to relieve the ache in my chest. “How’s Henry?”

My sister’s baby was born on the day I flew out here, and that’s another reason I can’t wait to get home to Newport and not Boston. Ella’s pregnancy was a little rocky to begin with. She’d broken up with her boyfriend before she discovered she was pregnant, and there were echoes of my situation with Lexi, except of course that Ella was in love with Mac, and missing him like mad. I could see how sad she was, and given the similarities in our circumstances, I did what I could to help her. I might have only been someone to talk to, and a pair of fairly broad shoulders to cry on, but I could see how much she needed them… and me.

Even though she and Mac are back together now, and he’s moved his life from London to Newport just to be with her, I still feel responsible for my little sister. I want to make sure she’s okay.

“They’re both doing great,” Hunter says. “Ella’s a little sleep deprived and is likely to bite your head off if you suggest there’s not an ‘R’ in the month… or there is one, for that matter.”

I chuckle, remembering what it was like to step on those same eggshells when Maisie had just been born, and Lexi held me responsible for everything that was wrong with the world.

“But she’s happy?”

“Yeah, she is.” He pauses. “Are you?”

I’d hoped we’d successfully changed the subject. It seems I was wrong, and there’s no point in trying to deceive my brother. He knows me too well.

“Happiness would be sharing my life with the woman I love, so no, I’m not happy.”

“I guess there’s no hope for that.”

“Probably not.”

“Why only ‘probably’?” he says. “Surely, after everything that’s happened…”

“I know, I know… and I really mustn’t get my hopes up, but…”

“But what?”

“It was just something Lexi said the last time I spoke to her.”

“About what?”

“I was trying to make some arrangements with her for when I get back to the States, you know? We might have fixed up what we’re doing immediately after my return, but I wanted to work out when I could next go to see them in New York.”

“And?”

“And she was being kinda cagey about it. No matter how hard I tried to set a date, she kept saying it could wait. There was something about it… about the way she was talking. I got the feeling something’s going on.”

“What kind of something?”

“I don’t know. But I wondered if maybe she’d met someone and she needed to check things out with him first, before she could commit to dates and times with me.”

“You don’t think you could be reading too much into it?” he says, adding a heavy hint of reality to the conversation.

“Probably.” I sigh, feeling like my hopes are being dashed before me. “I just thought if she’d met another guy, it might make things easier.”

“It sounds to me like it’ll make them a lot more complicated, trying to tie in three schedules instead of two.”

“That’s not what I meant. I was talking about the fact that, if Lexi is dating someone, then maybe I could, too.”

“Even if that ‘someone’ is her sister?” He sounds skeptical, and I can’t say I blame him. I’m clutching at straws here, and I know it.

“I know it wouldn’t be as straightforward as me dating a stranger, but I also got the impression Lexi and her sister aren’t as close as I thought they were.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mentioned it to Ella the last time I spoke with her, but what I didn’t realize then was that Lexi and her sister haven’t seen each other since Maisie was born.”

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