“What does that mean?”
“Seems he pursues the girls in the highest heels, the ones who are clawing their way to the top. They use Braden, then leave heel dents on him when they climb up and over him.”
“Good,” Jamie said.
“I know what you’re thinking, that if that’s what he likes, he’ll stay away from your Hallie. Want to hear the best news?” Todd didn’t wait for an answer. “Mrs. Westbrook has been trying to get her son and dear, sweet Hallie together since they were kids.”
“He’s too old for her!” Jamie said.
“Not according to his mother. She thinks Hallie would make him a great wife and give her half a dozen grandkids. So what does your Hallie think of him?”
“I don’t know,” Jamie said softly.
“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”
“I don’t know what she thinks of him!” Jamie half shouted, then calmed. “All I know for sure is that Hallie calls him her friend and she wants the place spotless before he arrives.”
Todd drew in his breath. “You’re helping her clean up the house for her boyfriend?”
“He’s not—” Jamie closed his eyes for a moment. “Besides being stupid about women, what else is this guy like?”
“Squeaky clean. Not so much as a parking ticket. Dad knows someone at the law firm where he works, so I—”
“You told Dad?! Please say you didn’t tell Mom too.”
“Sure I did. In fact, Mom’s decided that her next book is going to be about a physical therapist who—”
“Spare me,” Jamie said. “What did Dad say?”
“Braden Westbrook is soon to be made a partner in the law firm. The gu
y is a hard worker and as honest as a lawyer can be. Those rapacious women he goes after seem to be his only flaw. But his mother thinks that the way he was treated by this last one is going to make him change his ways. I don’t know about that, but the day I was there, he was in Boston buying himself new clothes to wear on Nantucket. How are you doing in your sweats?”
Jamie didn’t answer the question. “What’s he look like?”
“A blond Montgomery.”
“That’s good,” Jamie said. “Skinny, no muscles, washed out, bland.”
“You keep telling yourself that. This guy looks great and has a good job. Just out of curiosity, have you told Hallie how much you like her?”
“Not yet,” Jamie said. “It’s too early and I need more time to work things out.”
“I agree,” Todd said. “Take all the time you need. I’m sure there are thousands of unselfish, funny, smart, beautiful girls like Hallie out there. And I bet that when the family starts arriving not one of the cousins is going to hit on her. What are Adam and Ian up to now? Or does she like bulk? Raine should fill that need. And what happens when Westbrook asks Hallie out to dinner and a moonlight walk on the beach? Is she going to want to stay home with you and clean things? Or talk about ghosts?”
“You’re a real bastard, you know that?” Jamie said in anger.
“Just trying to get you to leave the past behind,” Todd replied with an equal amount of anger. “You have a chance and I don’t want you to blow it. If I found my Hallie, I’d go after her with everything I had.”
“Yeah, well, there are extenuating circumstances. I—”
“Heard it all before,” Todd said. “The way I see it, you have just days to make her look at you as something other than her cleaning partner. I’ll call you tomorrow. No! You call me when you’ve done something about all this. Otherwise, don’t bother.” He hung up.
Jamie was angry after his brother’s call, but when he got back to the house and saw Hallie, he nearly exploded. She was in the pantry, on one tiptoe on the top step of the little ladder, trying to reach something at the back of the uppermost shelf. She looked like she was a quarter inch away from falling.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jamie bellowed, then immediately regretted it. It was the voice he used on a battlefield and at home it had sent many a child running away in tears.
But Hallie seemed unperturbed. “I almost…” She stretched even farther. “Got it!” she said just before doing what looked like a one-footed dance on the stepstool. When she went to put her other foot down, she met vacant air.