Sarah Mayberry - Her Kind of Trouble

“I did, thanks,” Seth said after a small hesitation. “The cake was amazing. I got some good pictures of Sam blowing out the candles. I’ll email them to you when I get home.”

“Thanks, that’d be great.”

Seth’s eyes narrowed at Jodie’s cool tone, but he didn’t push the issue, shifting his focus to Vivian and giving her a quick nod. “Good to see you, Viv. Good luck with the business.”

Behind her, Vivian heard a sound, but when she glanced at her sister, Jodie’s expression was carefully neutral.

“You, too,” Vivian said. “Maybe I’ll drop into this sleazy dive of yours sometime and have a drink on the house.”

“You do that.”

Seth glanced at Jodie one last time before heading for the door. Vivian waited until he was gone before turning to her sister.

“What was all that about?”

Jodie went to the sink and rinsed the sponge. “What do you mean?”

“All that stuff with Seth just now. Are you guys fighting or something?”

“No. Of course not.”

Jodie had always been the world’s worst liar. Her voice got all funny and high, and her gaze started wandering all over the room. Vivian decided to take the fact that her sister was currently addressing the light fixture rather than looking at her as a sign that she was onto something.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine with me,” she said.

Jodie pressed her lips together as though she was trying to contain herself. “He’s such a bloody hypocrite, that’s all. I saw the way he was looking at you when he was talking to you earlier. Like you were a woman-shaped lollypop and he wanted to lick you. If I could get away with it, I’d kick him in the shins.” The words burst out of Jodie as though propelled, and she immediately started wiping the counter as though she would mop up her words in the same way.

“Okay. Is there any reason why Seth flirting with me is a problem? I mean, I know he’s having a baby with someone else, but they’re not together, right? And he and I have always had that little flirty routine going on. It’s our thing. It doesn’t mean anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I know it’s your thing. And I’ve never had a problem with it. I thought you guys were friends. But—” Jodie took a deep breath. “You know what? This isn’t even worth getting into. Forget I said anything.”

Vivian weighed her sister’s obvious desire to drop the subject against the rather disturbing snippet Jodie had let slip and decided that she simply wasn’t able to let this one go through to the keeper.

“I was under the impression that Seth and I were friends, too. What makes you think we aren’t?”

“Nothing. It was a slip of the tongue. Ignore me.”

“Jodie.”

Her sister closed her eyes for a beat. “Viv. You don’t want to get into this. It’s between me and Jason, really. Not even that. It’s been Seth and himself. The idiot.”

Vivian watched her sister clean the already pristine granite counter. She wasn’t sure why, but for some reason she found herself thinking about the conversation they’d had earlier in the week when Jodie had asked Vivian to be co-guardian to Max and Sam. She felt a little crazy linking the two things, but her intuition was going nuts and she’d learned to trust it over the years.

“Is this to do with the guardianship?”

Jodie went very still, and Vivian knew she’d hit pay dirt.

“I don’t think we should have this conversation,” Jodie said miserably. “I shouldn’t have said anything in the first place. Can we please forget it?”

Jodie looked so unhappy, Vivian swallowed her objection. “Okay. If that’s what you want.”

“I do. I want us both to erase the last five minutes.”

“Okay.” Uneasy, Vivian went to collect more plates.

She couldn’t stop herself from mulling over what little Jodie had said while she worked. Did Seth have some sort of problem with sharing guardianship with her? Did he want it all to himself, perhaps? Was he worried she’d fight him for custody...?

She couldn’t get her head around it. She definitely couldn’t imagine Seth agitating for sole guardianship of Sam and Max should anything happen to his brother and her sister. But clearly something was going on. Something that involved her and Seth.

“Vivian...”

She turned to find an uncomfortable-looking Jodie watching her from the patio.

“Please tell me you’re not out here imagining a million different horrible scenarios.”

“I’m not. Just one or two. That way I can get the details nice and vivid.”

Jodie groaned. “God, sometimes I have such a big mouth.” She joined Vivian at the buffet table. “Are you going to be able to forget what I said?”

“Of course. Although I’ve got to admit that I’m tempted to ask Seth what the problem is. Straight to the horse and all that.”

Jodie’s eyes went round. “God. I almost want to encourage you to do that.”

Vivian set down the dirty forks she’d collected. “Are you going to spill or what? Because you can’t keep dangling the carrot forever.”

Jodie glanced toward the house. “I promised Jason I wouldn’t say anything to you.”

“Right.”

“But I’ve already kind of ruined that, haven’t I?”

“A little.”

“Promise me that you won’t take this to heart, okay? This is about Seth, not you. About his stupid situation. Which is why he’s such a freaking hypocrite.”

“Jodie, come on. You are literally killing me here.”

“Seth doesn’t think you’re a good fit to be guardian to the boys.” Jodie said it in a rush, almost as though she was afraid that she’d lose her gumption if she went any slower.

“A good fit. What does that mean, exactly?” Vivian asked carefully.

“He’s an idiot, Vivian. His head is messed up over this baby stuff with Lola. He’s having problems with her. It’s a classic case of projection.”

“What did he say?”

“He thinks you’re unreliable. A party girl. Flighty.” Jodie curled her hand around Vivian’s. “But he doesn’t really think that, Viv. Or, if he does, it’s only because he doesn’t know you well enough to know the real you.”

Her sister’s words seemed to come from a distance, as though she was shouting them from another room. Suddenly all Vivian could remember was the way Seth’s gaze had slid down her body and lingered on her thighs when he’d asked if he could pick another body part. Meanwhile, he’d been dripping poison in her sister’s and brother-in-law’s ears, trying to convince them not to trust her with their precious children.

How. Freaking. Dare. He.

She inhaled slowly through her nose, trying to order her chaotic thoughts. There were so many directions to go, after all. Outrage, hurt, shame, anger.

“What did you say?” she asked.

“I wasn’t there. Jason spoke to him alone. But he told him that we’d made our decision.”

“Was Jason worried? After what Seth said?”

“No. Not for a second.”

Vivian was hugely grateful for the fact that her sister didn’t hesitate to reassure her.

“In fact, he thought Seth was way out of line. It’s not like Seth’s got a fantastic track record himself. He’s hardly been the poster boy for upstanding citizenship over the years. He’s got a good heart, though, and we both think that is way more important than either of you having nine-to-five jobs. Who cares if it took you a while to find yourself? Who cares if you used to party like it’s 1999? All of those things mean that you’ll be able to offer Sam and Max awesome advice when they need it. If they need it.”

Vivian blinked. “He brought up my career changes? And my lifestyle?”