Page 83 of Merry Little Midlife Matchmaker

“Who are what?”

“I don’t know. She’s my sister. I never thought of her like…” Aaron leaned back in his chair and scrubbed his face. “This is so weird, man. The kiss, I could kind of understand. Maybe. Sort of. I don’t know. I thought you were drunk, or… I just thought you were an asshole. But this?”

“It’s more shocking to you that I would actually care about her?” My words came out harsher than I’d meant them to, and Aaron pulled his hands away from his face to stare at me.

He shrugged. “I mean—yeah? Lizzie is just… She’s just Lizzie.”

“She’s just Lizzie,” I repeated.

“Yeah. She’s always busy with her kids, and I just never thought…” He frowned at me. “Does she feel the same way?”

I scoffed. “I’m pretty sure she never wants to see me again.”

“Oh.” He seemed relieved, which annoyed me. “Mom just called and said she doesn’t want to host New Year’s.”

“Makes sense.”

Aaron reared back. “Why does that make sense?”

“Um, because we’ve all treated her like shit? Why would she want to see any of us?”

“Whoa, whoa! What’s this got to do with me? If she’s mad at you for coming onto her, that’s not my problem.”

“She’s not mad at me for coming onto her, dickhead. She’s mad at me for not defending her. She’s mad at me for leaving her hanging when you confronted me.”

“What?” Aaron looked utterly confused. Lost.

“I did to her what you and everyone else does, and now she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? What do I do to her?”

“Youuseher, Aaron!”

Aaron opened his mouth. Snapped it shut again. Drew his brows low over his eyes, then shook his head. “No, I don’t.”

“You call her to drop everything to come babysit without warning.”

“She likes kids!”

“You host events at your house and make her do all the cooking.”

“She likes cooking!”

“Not that much! Not so much that she wouldn’t want some fucking help once in a while.”

“So, what, the fact that she doesn’t want to talk to you is my fault now?”

I opened my mouth and just about managed to hold back the harsh words that tried to fly out of it. Instead, I took a deep breath to calm myself, then said, “She steps up when she needs to, but she isn’t appreciated for it, Aaron. And I added to that when I should have been the one person to stand up for her. I treated her exactly like her ex-husband did. I put my own pride, my own needs ahead of hers.”

Aaron looked like he wanted to protest but was too baffled to do it. “Her ex?”

“She picked up his slack, just like she picks up everyone else’s. She hasn’t had someone in her corner in a long time. I saw it, and I still failed her. So no, she doesn’t want to talk to me. And I don’t blame her.”

Aaron leaned his elbows on his knees and stared at the floor. “She bounced back so quickly after her divorce. I didn’t realize…”

“She bounced back because she had no choice.”

Rubbing the heels of his palms into his eye sockets, Aaron let out a long breath. “So, what now?”

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