Her Kind of Trouble

“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?”

Jodie slapped a hand to her forehead. “Why do I keep making this worse?”

Vivian gripped her sister’s shoulders and looked her dead in the eye. “You need to tell me everything he said. Every word.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You need to.”

Because Jodie might think that Seth was being a jerk, that he was projecting, that this was some kind of manifestation of the stress he must be feeling as a parent-to-be, but she didn’t know the full story. Jodie didn’t know that ten years ago, Vivian and Seth had had wild limo-monkey-sex at her wedding.

And that changed everything. Big-time.

“Start at the beginning, and don’t stop until you reach the end,” she instructed. And then she braced herself, because she knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.

CHAPTER FOUR

IT TOOK VIVIAN half an hour to drag a full account of Seth’s assholery from her sister. Then it took another half hour of cajoling, begging and bullying to extract his address.

“It’s okay, Jodie, I’m not going over there with a loaded gun,” she’d assured her sister.