The Sparkling One

Brenna sat up enough to take a sip of her wine. “Dr. Jeff might be an up-and-coming cardiologist, but he doesn’t know dick about a woman’s sexual wants and desires.”



Francesca struggled into a sitting position. She shifted so that her legs hung over the bed and stared at her sister. “Brenna? What are you saying? How exactly would you know he wasn’t good in bed?”



Katie was also playing mental catch-up. She got there before her sister. “You had sex with someone other than Jeff?”



Brenna blinked several times. “Uh-huh.”



Katie couldn’t believe it. She thought she knew everything about her sisters’ lives. Apparently she was wrong. “Did you have an affair?”



Brenna dropped her head back onto the bed. “Of course not. I wouldn’t cheat on Jeff. Only he did that. This was before.”



Francesca nearly fell off the bed. “You weren’t a virgin when you got married?”



Brenna stared at her sister. “What century are you in? You were the only bridal virgin I knew.”



Francesca reached for her wine and took a gulp, then turned her attention to Katie. “Did you and Greg, well, you know?”



Katie laughed. “Yes, we had sex, and I regret every drop of bodily fluid exchanged.”



“I can’t blame you,” Brenna said. “Who wants to be with a man who prefers death to marriage?”



“That’s not why he went into the army,” Francesca protested.



“Then why?” Brenna asked.



Francesca shrugged.



Katie tried to laugh, but she couldn’t. After all this time her lie should feel like the truth, but it didn’t. Maybe it never would. That was the thing about lies—they tended to live on forever.



“Okay,” Brenna said, reaching for another bottle and the corkscrew. “Your turn, Francesca. ’Fess up. Did you have any secret lovers?”



“Of course not,” she said primly. “I was a virgin when I married Todd.”



Brenna hooted. “Figures. The family beauty is the only one who waited to get laid.”



“I wanted my first time to be with my husband.”



“Talk about pressure,” Brenna muttered.



“I wanted the memory,” Francesca said.



“Fair enough,” Brenna said.



“But I regretted it,” Francesca announced.



Katie felt her mouth drop open. Brenna pulled the cork out of the bottle and nearly dumped the contents onto the bed.



“Being a virgin on your wedding night?” Brenna asked.



“Well, not exactly regretted it, but I do wish I’d slept with Nic Giovanni.”



Katie burst out laughing. “Nic? Our neighbor? Heir to the hated Wild Sea Vineyard? Francesca, I’m shocked.”



Francesca rolled her eyes. “Come on, Katie. Nic was incredibly hot. That tall, dark, brooding thing he had going on was irresistible. Plus he rode a motorcycle and dated lots of girls who put out. I always knew he would be the perfect guy to lose my virginity to. He would make a girl’s first time perfect.”



Katie held out her glass to Brenna, then nodded. “Okay, I’ll confess to Nic Giovanni fantasies, too. I ran into him once when he was home from college one summer. We were in town and he stopped to talk to me. I thought maybe he’d ask me out, but he didn’t.” She sighed at the memory. “I probably would have been willing to give it up for him.”



“My sisters are sluts,” Brenna announced.



Francesca grabbed the wine bottle. “I refuse to believe you didn’t have Nic fantasies, too.”



“I had several,” Brenna said. “But, as you said, we all fantasized about him. Who else do you wish you’d slept with.”



Francesca named a couple of guys Katie remembered from high school. Back then she’d been more into romance than sex, so while she could list a bunch of guys she would have liked to have dated, she wasn’t sure she could claim a willingness to have sex with them.



“You need to just go out there and do it,” Brenna told Francesca. “It’s been too long. Important parts of your body are atrophying.”



Francesca rolled her eyes. “I’m fine.”



“You’re living like a nun.”



Katie had to agree. “Francesca, you’ve taken the whole ‘be independent’ thing way too far. Refusing to marry again is fine, but giving up on doing the wild thing is just plain stupid.”



Francesca raised her eyebrows. “I can’t believe you of all people would say that to me. What happened to waiting for your handsome prince.”



Brenna grinned. “She’s still waiting, but in the meantime she’s not adverse to a little hide the salami.”



Katie laughed. “Hide the salami? That’s disgusting.”



“Easy for you to be all superior and picky,” Brenna grumbled. “You just got laid.”



“Good point.” Katie sipped her wine. “I remembered what I’d been missing.” She turned her attention back to Francesca. “Which is my point. I’m not suggesting you fall in love or anything, but give some guy a chance.”



Francesca didn’t look convinced. “Just some guy? Should I randomly pick one off the street?”



“Absolutely!” Brenna leaned toward her. “I want you to have sex with the next single, reasonably good-looking guy you run across, and I’m not pouring you any more wine until you agree.”



“You’re kidding.”



Brenna looked at Katie. “Are you with me on this?”



“A hundred percent. Francesca needs a man.”



Francesca groaned. “Fine. I’ve probably been out of the game for too long. I’ll look around and—”



Brenna cut her off with a shake of her head. “The next single guy. That’s the rule. Or no more Marcelli reserve in your glass.”



Francesca sighed. “All right. I’ll do it. But the consequences are your responsibility.”



The three sisters leaned forward and clinked glasses.



When Katie straightened, she rested against the foot-board. All this talk of young love and lust made her think of Mia and David, and what Zach had told her. The more she considered what he’d said, the more she came to believe him. But should she tell her sisters what Zach saw between David and that other girl? If she did, they would want to tell Mia, and did she want that?



She didn’t have an answer, and until she did, she decided she would keep quiet.



“All those lost opportunities,” Brenna said mournfully. “Our secret lives.”



“Mom and Dad have secrets.”



Francesca’s unexpected comment silenced Brenna. She and Katie looked at each other, then at their sister.



Francesca swallowed uncomfortably. “I didn’t know if I should say anything. I tried to forget what I overheard, but it’s been bothering me.”



“What?” Brenna asked. “Is it the winery? Is there something wrong with the vineyards?”



Francesca shook her hair off her shoulders. “There’s more to life than grapes, Brenna. No, it was something else.” She explained how she had come home unexpectedly and overheard their parents and grandparents talking in the library.



“Grammy M said the family is being punished by God,” she finished. “Dad said not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about him.”



“What him?” Katie asked. “What on earth are they talking about?”



“I don’t know.”



“It could be the feud,” Brenna said. “Maybe thirty years ago something bad happened with Wild Sea Vineyard and the Giovanni family.”



Katie thought about the family history. “How is that possible? The feud started in the late forties, right after the Second World War. Dad wasn’t even born then.”



“That’s right,” Francesca said. “Plus Grammy M was the one saying we were being punished, and she didn’t become a part of the family until Mom and Dad got married—which was what? Twenty-nine years ago?”



“But you said they said thirty years ago,” Brenna reminded Francesca. “Whatever it was happened thirty years ago.”



“What is it?” Katie asked. “What could anyone have done? There hasn’t even been the hint of a scandal. No whispers or rumors. I always thought we were boringly normal.” She turned to Francesca. “Could you have misunderstood?”



“I don’t know. Maybe.”



Katie looked at Brenna, who shrugged. They both seemed to be waiting for her to make a decision. She thought about the fund-raiser and the upcoming wedding. Not to mention the thousands of beads yet to be attached on Mia’s gown, and the mysterious redhead, and Katie’s confusing relationship with Zach.



“Let’s give it a few weeks and see if anything happens,” she said. “If not, we’ll bring it up at a family dinner.”



“Works for me,” Francesca said.



“Maybe the one celebrating my divorce from Jeff,” Brenna said. “Or the one where we tell the family how we convinced him to back off on the winery.”



Katie was surprised. “You’ve heard from him about that? The last I knew was that he was determined to pursue the inheritance angle, despite there not being one.”



Brenna and Francesca exchanged looks. Katie recognized the combination of guilt and excitement immediately. “All right, you two. What are you up to?”



“Nothing,” Francesca said, careful to avert her gaze.



Katie zeroed in on Brenna. “Spill it, now. Every word. Start at the beginning.”



Brenna sighed. “It’s no big deal. Jeff called to tell me that if I backed off on getting repaid for putting him through school, he’d let go of the inheritance. I told him to go screw himself. If that requires him cutting off certain body parts in the process, I don’t care.”



“We’re going to get back at him,” Francesca announced, then covered her mouth and looked horrified.



Katie groaned. “You’re what?”



“Nothing.” Brenna held up the bottle. “More wine?”



“No. I want the truth. What are you planning?”



“We’re trapping the bastard at his own game,” Brenna said gleefully. “Francesca’s going to meet with him. Play the mourning sister-in-law who completely understands why he left his bitchy wife.”



Katie was confused. “Why?”



Francesca leaned toward her. “He’s slime. I’m going to dress sexy, see if he comes on to me, and tape the whole thing.”



“Why would he come on to you?”



The twins exchanged a look. Brenna shrugged. “Jeff got drunk once and admitted that he’d always had a thing for Francesca. I didn’t think anything about it, except then I saw he was always kind of watching her.”



“I didn’t know,” Francesca admitted, “until Brenna told me.”



“But now she can use it against him. She’ll tape the conversation. When he’s trapped himself, we’ll threaten to send the tape to the bimbo. Either Jeff gets off the winery or his new girlfriend finds out he’s a real sleaze.”



Katie couldn’t believe it. “That’s illegal. Zach can’t know about this.”



“Of course not. Although I think he’ll be impressed when I tell him.”



Katie looked at her sisters. “You can’t be serious. This is wrong. It’s tacky and horrible and puts you on Jeff’s level.”



Brenna’s gaze narrowed. “That bastard is not getting one square inch of this winery, and by God he’s going to pay me what he owes me. Quit spoiling the fun, Katie.”



Katie held up her free hand. “Okay, I’ll admit that Jeff needs his comeuppance, but this is not the way to do it.”