HARRIET’S PHONE RANG just after 5:30 a.m., and Fliss was already halfway through the door. She’d been woken early by one of their dog walkers who’d picked up stomach flu after a night out and couldn’t crawl out of her bed let alone walk an energetic dog. Thoughts of Barney the bulldog waiting patiently in his owner’s apartment in Tribeca for someone who wasn’t going to turn up drove Fliss from the comfort of her bed a full hour before she would normally have forced herself upright.
At least it was walking a dog.
She liked the simplicity of dealing with animals. Animals never tried to force you to talk about things you didn’t want to talk about.
“Harry? Someone is calling you.” She yelled her sister’s name and then cursed as she heard the shower running.
Knowing there was no way her sister was going to hear the phone through the sound of running water, she eyed the device, torn between the need to leave and do battle with the subway, and the almost irresistible lure of possible new business.
They’d call back.
But Harriet might not answer it because she hated talking to strangers on the phone. And then they’d lose business.
Damn. She closed the front door, checked the number and frowned as she answered.
“Grams?”
“Harriet? Oh, I’m so glad I’ve reached you, honey.”
“I’m—” Felicity was about to say that she wasn’t Harriet, but her grandmother was still speaking.
“I don’t want to worry you, but I had a fall.”
“A fall? How? Where? How bad?”
“I tripped in the garden. So silly of me. I was trying to do something about the fact it’s so overgrown. And the gate is so rusty it will hardly open. You remember how it always made a noise?”
“Yes.” Fliss stared through the window of her apartment. She’d poured oil on the gate to try to stop its creaking when she’d sneaked out in the night to meet Seth. “Are you hurt? Where are you now?”
“I’m in the hospital. Would you believe I’m in the same room they put me in when I had my gallbladder removed ten years ago?”
“What?” She shouldn’t be thinking about Seth. “Grams, that’s awful!”
“It’s perfect. This room has a beautiful view of the garden. I’m very pleased to be here, and they’re taking very good care of me.”
“I meant awful that you’re in the hospital, not awful about having a nice room.”
“Well, it’s not so awful while I’m here. The awful part will be when they send me home. And they won’t do that until I assure them I have someone there to keep an eye on me for a while. I think it’s a fuss about nothing, but I’m a little bruised and apparently I was unconscious for a while.” There was a pause. “I was wondering—I hate to ask since I know the two of you are so busy with your business, but is there any chance you could come just for a few weeks? Just until I’m back on my feet? I’m too far from town to be able to manage easily, and if I can’t drive I’m going to struggle. Would Fliss be able to manage without you? It would mean leaving New York, but you always used to love the summers here.”
It would mean leaving New York.
They were the best words she’d heard in a while.
Fliss tightened her grip on the phone. “Leave New York?” Her mind raced ahead. “You want me to spend the summer with you?”
“A few weeks should be enough. I’ll need help with the shopping and cooking, and simple things around the house. Just until I’m back on my feet and mobile. And then there’s Charlie, of course. I don’t know how I’m going to walk him, and he does need exercise.”
Fliss winced. Charlie was her grandmother’s beagle. He was stubborn and single-minded. He also bayed a lot, which meant Fliss invariably resorted to headache tablets whenever she visited.
Biting back her natural response, she reminded herself that she was pretending to be Harriet.
“How is darling Charlie?” She almost choked on the words. How did her sister manage it? How was she so unfailingly kind and generous?
“Too energetic for me to handle for a while, and you’re so lovely with him. I shouldn’t have got another dog at my age, but he brings me so much joy. Sadly I can’t cope with him if I’m resting.”
“Of course you can’t.” Fliss glanced up as Harriet emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel. “I’ll come.”
“You will? Oh, you’re such a good girl. You always were.”
No, she wasn’t. She’d never been a good girl. That was the problem. And even now she was doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. But she was doing it, so that was what counted, wasn’t it? Did it really matter if she had her own reasons for wanting to escape the city?
“When are you able to come home, Grams?”
“The day after tomorrow if you’re able to pick me up from the hospital. You’ll need to rent a car—”
“No problem. I’ll handle that.” She felt a rush of relief. The cloud that had dampened her mood for the past few weeks lifted. Here was the perfect solution to her problem, right under her nose. She didn’t have to fly to Hawaii. She didn’t even have to leave the state of New York. “Take care, Grams. I’ll give your love to Fliss.” She ended the call, and Harriet raised her eyebrows.
“Why are you giving love to yourself?”
“She thought I was you.”
“And saying, ‘I’m Fliss, not Harry,’ didn’t enter your head?”
“I was about to say that, but then my genius plan came into my head instead.”
“Suddenly I’m nervous.”
“You know I mentioned going to Hawaii? Turns out I don’t need to. I’m going to spend the summer in the Hamptons.”
“Summer in the Hamptons?”
Fliss grinned. “Yeah, you remember the place. Beaches, villages, sand and surf, ice cream dripping on your fingers, traffic and tourists—”
“I know all about the Hamptons. I also know you usually avoid it.”
“I avoid it because I’m afraid I might bump into Seth, but Seth is in Manhattan. If I go to the Hamptons I can walk instead of skulking. And Grams needs me.”
“I thought it was me she needed.”
“We’re interchangeable.”
“Why does she need you? Has something happened?”
“She had a fall. She’s in the hospital but they’re letting her go home as long as someone is there for her.”
“Oh no! Poor Grams.” Harriet looked horrified. “Why didn’t you tell her it was you on the phone?”
“Because then she would have asked to speak to you. She wanted you, not me. She probably doesn’t think I’ll be a good nurse.” She wondered, just for a moment, what it would be like to be the one everyone wanted around. “And she’s probably right.”
Harriet sighed. “Fliss—”
“What? We both know I’m not the nurturing type, but I swear if you agree to let me go and stay here instead, I’ll take really good care of her. I’ll do anything. I’ll bathe her. I’ll be sympathetic. I’ll walk Charlie.”
“You don’t even like Charlie.”
“I take exception to his selective deafness, that’s all. I hate the way he has to smell absolutely everything we pass. He almost pulled my arm out of its socket last time I walked him.”
“He’s a beagle. Beagles are hunting dogs.”
“He shouldn’t be hunting when I’m walking him.”
“He’s the perfect dog for Grams. She can’t walk as fast these days, but that just gives Charlie more sniffing time. I think beagles are incredible. They’re basically a nose on four legs.”
“You think all dogs are incredible. And Charlie is not so incredible when he’s baying. But I’ll handle it. I’ll handle everything. I’ll even hug him if that’s what it takes. And I’ll tell you everything that is happening and I’ll do anything you ask. I’ll even make your chocolate chip cookies.”
“No!” Harriet looked alarmed. “Don’t do that. You’ll set the house on fire.”
“All right, no chocolate chip cookies.” Fliss flopped down onto the chair. The sheer relief at the prospect of a reprieve made her realize how stressed she’d been. “Please, Harry. I really need to get out of Manhattan. It’s driving me crazy. I can’t relax, I’m not sleeping, and when I don’t sleep I’m in a continually rotten mood—”
“I’d noticed. Fine, go.” Harriet rubbed the ends of her hair with the towel. “But you’ll have to tell Grams the truth. You can’t pretend to be me. That crosses a line.”
Fliss didn’t comment.
She’d crossed so many lines in her life she no longer knew which side of the line she stood on.
“I can’t tell her before I go. She might tell me she doesn’t want me.” There was an ache in the pit of her stomach. The truth was everyone wanted Harriet. Harriet was kind and generous. She was warm-natured and even-tempered. Harriet had never gone skinny-dipping. She’d never lied to a man and had wild sex on a beach. “I’ll tell her the moment I arrive and pick her up from the hospital.”
“Are you sure this is going to help? Sooner or later you’re going to have to come back and meet Seth. You’re postponing the inevitable, that’s all.”
“Postponing the inevitable looks good from where I’m standing. Never do today what you can put off until next week.”
Harriet folded the towel neatly. “All right. But the moment you pick Grams up from the hospital, you explain everything.”
“Absolutely.”
“You tell her what’s happened and you tell her you’re Fliss.”
“I will. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“No skinny-dipping.”
“Hey—” Fliss spread her hands “—I’m a reformed character.”
“No stealing tomatoes.”
“They were good tomatoes. And the family were away for the summer, or so I thought at the time.” Fliss grinned and then caught Harriet’s eye and stopped grinning. “But just to be safe I’ll buy tomatoes on one of the roadside stands, I promise. No taking produce that doesn’t belong to me, even if it is perfectly ripe and no one is picking it and I know it’s going to go to waste. No way would I do that.”
Harriet gave her a long look. “And what am I supposed to say if I bump into Seth?”
“You’re sure you couldn’t pretend to be me?”
“No.”
“Because you’re so honest.”
“Well, there’s that, but also I’m a terrible actor. And what if he kissed me thinking I was you?”
You’d be the luckiest woman on the planet.
Her stomach gave a lurch. “That wouldn’t happen. You’re not going to bump into him, but if you do then you smile and say hello. I suppose.” She shrugged. “If I knew what to say, I’d be saying it myself. I don’t think you’re going to run into him.”
“It’s because you’re afraid of running into him that you’re leaving.” Harriet gave her a pointed look. “And I use that vet practice all the time.”
“Then maybe you will run into him. But you’ll be fine. So will you hold the fort while I go to the Hamptons? I promise I’ll still do all the paperwork, handle the accounts and make any phone call that makes you feel nauseous.”
“All right.” Harriet walked toward the bedroom and paused in the doorway. “But don’t burn the house down.”
“No cooking. I promise.”
She’d promise anything. Anything. She couldn’t live here with Seth working just a few blocks away, knowing that she could bump into him at any moment.
She needed to get out of town.
* * *
“MOM WANTS TO know if you’ll be joining us in Vermont for the Fourth.” Vanessa’s voice held a trace of irritation.
Seth knew his younger sister well enough to know it was best ignored. She was an organizer, and no one else ever did things to her satisfaction. If she’d been an animal she would have been a sheepdog, rounding everyone up the way she wanted them. “I can’t get away. I’m working.”
“On the holiday weekend?”
“This may surprise you, Vanessa, but pets don’t always get sick according to a schedule.”
“You’re not the only vet in the state of New York. Can’t you switch with someone? We need to plan. We’ve rented two cabins at Snow Crystal Resort and Spa, right by the lake. It will be idyllic. And so good for Mom. This is all new. Nothing we’ve ever done before. It’s the land of maple syrup, applesauce and great hiking. The place has the best restaurant for miles around. I keep reading about the chef. She’s French. You know how much Mom loves everything French. And, best of all, there will be no reminders of Dad.”
Seth felt a wrench in his gut. His father’s sudden death was recent enough that he saw reminders everywhere. He wasn’t sure if they were painful or precious, but one thing he did know was that traveling to Vermont wouldn’t make the loss any easier to bear.
“Plan without me.”
“I’m planning with you, that’s why I’m calling.” There was a pause. “I thought you could invite Naomi.”
It was Seth’s turn to feel irritation. “Why would I do that?”
“Because she’s still in love with you! You dated her for almost a year, Seth.”
“And we broke up ten months ago.”
“Dad died and it was a terrible time. None of us were ourselves.”
It was more than that. So much more. “Drop it, Vanessa.”
“I will not.”
Families, he thought. “Why are you bringing this up now?”
“Because I don’t understand what’s going on with you. You meet the perfect woman and then you break up with her?”
“This isn’t your business, Vanessa. You don’t need to understand. It’s my relationship. My life.”
“What relationship? That’s the point, Seth, you don’t have a relationship! You had a dream relationship, the perfect relationship, and you crashed it. And I just don’t get you. I love Naomi. Mom loves Naomi.”
“Yeah, well, this may come as another surprise to you, but it’s not enough that my family loves the woman I’m dating. I have to love her, too.”
“How could you not? Naomi is the sweetest person on the planet. What is wrong with her?”
“There’s nothing wrong with her. And you’re right, she’s a sweet person.”
“Finally we agree on something. So the question I should probably be asking is what is wrong with you?”
The problem was that he didn’t have a sweet tooth. He liked something with a kick. Bite. Tooth-rotting sweetness didn’t hold much appeal, but he had no intention of sharing that detail with his older sister. His youngest sister, Bryony, would never in a million years have dreamed of interfering.
“You need to leave this alone, Vanessa.”
“I can’t leave it alone. You’re my brother, and Naomi is my friend.”
And for Vanessa, that was enough. She wanted things to be the way she’d wanted them.
“Seth won’t play my game,” had been her constant whine as a child. Remembering brought a wry smile to his lips. He hadn’t played her game then, and he certainly wasn’t playing it now.
“If you truly care about Naomi then you’ll step back from this one. If you interfere, you’ll make things worse. It’s not fair to her.”
“I thought, maybe, if you spend some time together in Vermont the two of you might—”
“It’s over, Vanessa. And if you hint at anything else to her, if you imply that if we got together for the Fourth then there might be a big reconciliation, then you’ll be the one hurting her. It’s the wrong thing to do.”
“Is it wrong to want to see you settled and married one day?”
“I’ve been married.”
There was a tense pause. “That one didn’t count. It wasn’t real.”
He’d counted it. Every hour. And it felt as real now as it had then. “Are you done?”
“Now I’ve annoyed you, but it was Vegas, Seth. Vegas! Who gets married in Vegas? I can only assume you did it because you had some misguided notion about taking her away from her father. Protecting her. You’ve spent your life rescuing things, but she didn’t need protecting. You’re such a gentleman, and she took advantage of you.”
Seth decided it was a good thing his sister couldn’t see him smiling. “Maybe I’m not such a gentleman. Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”
“I know you never would have married her unless she’d forced you.”
“You think she handcuffed me to the door of the Elvis Chapel?”
“So if it was a real wedding, why didn’t you invite us?”
“Because it’s impossible to invite you without your opinions coming along for the ride.”
“You hurt Mom’s feelings.”
He tensed, knowing it was true and knowing also that his sister knew exactly how to wound. “I need to go, Vanessa. I have patients to see.” An ex-wife to track down.
“Maybe I’m crossing a line—”
“You always do.”
“—but that happens every time we talk about her. You’ve seen her, haven’t you? That was why you took the job in New York.”
He didn’t need to ask whom she meant. He contemplated not answering but decided that would prolong the conversation. “I haven’t seen her yet.”
“‘Yet’? That means you’re intending to. What are you thinking? Or maybe you’re not thinking and it’s testosterone affecting your brain.” She sighed. “I’m sorry. I want you to be happy, that’s all. Maybe you should meet her. Maybe if you actually came face-to-face with her again, you would get her out of your system.” She made Fliss sound like a drug overdose; something that could be overcome with the right antidote.
“There’s nothing wrong with my system, but thank you for granting your permission.”
“I hate sarcasm.”
“And I hate your need to control other people’s lives as well as your own.”
“You drive me crazy, do you know that?”
“It’s a brother’s duty to drive his sister crazy.”
“Not this crazy.” Vanessa sighed. “On second thoughts, I take it back. I don’t think you should see her. You don’t make good decisions when you’re around her. She ripped your heart out, Seth, and then she used it as a football.”
“‘She’ has a name.”
“Felicity. Fliss—” Vanessa almost choked “—and you’re talking in your quiet voice, which I know means you’re mad at me—messes with your head, Seth, and she always did. She’s a—a minx.”
Minx? Only his sister would have come up with a word like that. Seth thought about Fliss, remembering the wicked gleam in her catlike eyes and the teasing curve of her mouth. Maybe minx suited her. Maybe he had a minx addiction.
Maybe he was in as much trouble as his sister thought he was.
“Are you done?”
“Don’t cut me off! I don’t want you to be hurt again, that’s all. I care about you.”
“You don’t have to worry about me. I know what I’m doing.”
“Are you sure?” His sister’s voice was thickened. “You were the one who held it all together when Dad died. You were there for everyone. Our rock. You’ve got broad shoulders, Seth, but who do you lean on? If you don’t want to get back together with Naomi, you should find someone else. I don’t want you to be alone for the rest of your life.”
“We’re not populating Noah’s Ark, Vanessa. We don’t all have to be in twos.”
“I’m not going to mention it again. You’re old enough to make your own decisions, you’re right. Let’s talk about the house, instead. Mom wants to sell it.”
His gut twisted. “It’s too soon to make that decision.”
“I know you don’t want to sell it, but she can’t stand the thought of going back there.”
“She might feel differently in a while.”
“And she might not. Why does it matter to you, Seth? You’re building your own place near the water. Once that is finished, you won’t need Ocean View.”
He thought of the big house that had been part of his life for as long as he could remember. Maybe Vanessa was right. Maybe he was holding on to it for himself, not for his mother. “I’ll speak to a Realtor as soon as I have a chance. Get a valuation.”
“Good. I can leave that with you, then?”
“Yes.” He could almost hear her mentally ticking it off her list. Vanessa survived by lists. If something wasn’t on her list, it didn’t get done. He could imagine her, pencil in hand, ready to tick off find Seth a wife. She’d inherited her organizational tendencies from their mother, who was a warm and generous hostess. No one arriving at the Carlyle home would ever feel anything other than welcome. Summer at the Hamptons had been an endless round of entertaining both friends and family. No one would ever be fed the same thing twice. His mother had a file. People’s likes and dislikes, marriages, divorces, affairs—everything carefully recorded so that there were no awkward moments. And she had a team of people to help her.
Vanessa was the same, except she was more drill sergeant than congenial host.
“And you’ll think about the Fourth?”
“I don’t need to think. I know I’m working.”
“In that case I’ll visit you soon. We’ll have lunch. And, Seth—”
“What?”
“Whether you see her or not—whatever you do, don’t let her hurt you again.”