Page 71 of Sunsets at the Beach House

“Why won’t she like me?”

He groaned softly. “There are a variety of reasons. She’ll think you aren’t good enough for me. That you’re after my money. That—”

“After your money? Are you secretly a millionaire and you haven’t told me?”

He laughed. “There are a lot of women who’d think my military pension and benefits make me a pretty good catch.”

“I guess they would. And they do. But you’re a pretty good catch even without those things. I’m not such a bad catch myself, you know.”

“No, you’re not.” He grinned. “That’s the right attitude to have around Dinah. You won’t win her over, but you might soften her up a little. The thing is, in her eyes, there is no one worthy of her brother.”

“Is that why you never married?”

“I hate to say Dinah was the reason, but she’s scared off quite a few of my girlfriends.”

“And you let her get away with this?”

“I don’t let her do anything.” He sighed and she sensed this was a difficult subject for him. “Dinah is a force of nature. Our mother died when we were young, and our father worked a lot. Our grandmother helped raise us, but she had some health issues and couldn’t do everything our mother had. By the time Dinah was fourteen, she was running the house.”

“That must have been very hard on both of you.” Margo knew she was blessed to have had both her parents for so long. “Losing your mother so young.”

“It was,” Conrad said. “Dinah became my mother and my sister. She’s five years older than me and always seemed so capable. But I’ll tell you something I’ve never told her. I never will tell her, so you can’t, either.”

“Understood.” Margo nodded. She’d never betray his confidence.

“I went into the military because I thought it might be my only chance to get away from her. Dinah kept pushing me to become a mechanic like my father. To help him run the shop.” Conrad shook his head. “I didn’t want that. Even as a kid, books were my escape. I wanted to see some of the world I’d read about.”

“And the Marines made that seem possible.”

“They did. And they made good on it. I saw places I never dreamed I’d visit. But I’m not sure Dinah ever forgave me for taking that route. Not that she wasn’t proud of me. She was. But she ended up staying at home with our father and taking care of him.”

“Did she ever marry?”

“No. She had a few suitors. But after I left, our father became her focus.”

“Was your father unable to care for himself?”

“I’m sure he could have. But she cooked and cleaned and did his laundry, so he never had a chance to try. He didn’t complain about it. He probably liked the help. But she lived with him until his death. She still lives in the house to this day.”

“Do you think she’s happy?”

“I don’t know. She keeps busy, helping out with church functions and a couple of women’s groups. In fact, she never seems to sit still. You’ll see when she’s here. She’s always doing something. If she’s sitting down to watch television, she’s knitting or crocheting something. Last visit, it was hats for cancer patients.”

“That’s a nice thing to do.”

He nodded. “Everything she does is nice. Everything she does is for someone else. That’s been her entire life. Service to others.”

A lightbulb went off in Margo’s head. “Which is why she gets away with interfering in your life. You feel guilty about saying anything.”

He cut his eyes at her and exhaled. “How can I? All she’s ever done in her life is take care of me.”

“But if she’s kept you from having a wife, that’s not exactly taking care of you, either.”

“No, it’s not. I’ve just always told myself I’ve yet to meet the right woman.”

“You mean one capable of standing up to Dinah.”

“Maybe.”

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