A Woman Worth Loving

“Quite a place,” Seth said. Wrapped in the past, she had nearly forgotten he still stood beside her.

“It used to be even better,” she replied, feeling somewhat disappointed. Corners were being cut, apparently starting with the cleaning staff. Audra intended to give the manager a piece of her mind. But then she caught sight of Ali and remembered the real reason she was here.

“Excuse me,” she said to Seth. Without waiting for a reply, she walked to where her sister stood near the old-fashioned elevator, talking to a bellhop.

Ali wore a crisp white blouse, buttoned primly at the collar and topped off with one of those silly little necktie things that apparently were intended to scream “professional woman.” A neat navy skirt fell to just below her knees, and on her feet were a pair of blunt-toed leather shoes that could only be described as sensible. They did absolutely nothing for her sister’s long, slender legs.

Clearly, in the decade since they’d last seen one another, her sister’s fashion sense had not improved. Nor had Ali changed her hairstyle, if that was what it could be called. She still insisted on tugging that gorgeous mahogany mane into a no-nonsense ponytail. Audra’s fingers itched to pull it free and then push her sister into the nearest stylist’s chair. A clip here, a clip there and Ali’s face would be framed most attractively.

The bellhop moved away and Ali turned slightly, then. Her posture became rigid when she spied Audra, who swallowed hard before forcing a bright smile onto her lips.

“Hello, Ali.”

She crossed the distance that separated them since she doubted Ali would. Audra didn’t intend to shout during the first face-to-face conversation she’d had with her sister in more than a decade.

Ali scowled at her. “Audra.”

“I’d hoped you would meet me at the ferry. Maybe you didn’t get my messages.”

“I got them.”

She absorbed the hit, nodded once in acceptance. “Oh. I see.”

“Look, I’m kind of busy right now—too busy for whatever little family reunion you have in mind,” Ali said stiffly.

Audra glanced at the name tag pinned to her sister’s shirt: Ali Conlan, Manager.

She thought of the dusty windows and battered reception desk. It seemed so out of character for her perfectionist sister to allow such transgressions when she had the power to do something about them. Audra couldn’t help but recall the many battles they had engaged in as kids over the state of their shared bedroom. Even the socks in Ali’s drawers had been folded, sorted by color and then lined up in neat little rows. The drawers in Audra’s bureau, by contrast, would barely close, and even then bits of their unfolded contents sprouted out like weeds.

“You’re the manager? In the Christmas card I got from Dane he said you had just made assistant.”

“I was promoted to manager after…last month,” she finished.

Perhaps that explained it, Audra thought. Her sister wouldn’t have had time to whip everyone and everything into shape in a mere thirty days. Then she reminded herself that the state of the resort was not the reason she’d come back. The woman before her was.

“When do you get off work? I…I’d really like to talk to you.”

“There’s nothing you have to say that I want to hear,” Ali replied firmly, crossing her arms in a pose that said no quarter would be given.

And still Audra persisted. “Please.”

She laid a hand on her sister’s crossed arms. It was promptly shrugged off. Anger flashed in Ali’s dark eyes, cutting to Audra’s soul, even more painful than her stepson’s strangling hold had been.

“You haven’t wanted to talk for ten years, Audra. You fell off the face of the earth after you took off with Luke.”

“I didn’t actually take off with Luke. We—”

“Spare me the details,” Ali interrupted.

“You knew where I was.”

“Oh, yes, how could I not. Even your private life was lived out in public. We read all about your weddings—after the fact.”

“I invited you to the first one,” Audra reminded her. Dane had come, as had her parents. But not Ali.

“I was busy.”

Audra hadn’t invited any of them to her subsequent weddings. At the time she’d told herself it was because the nuptials had been so hastily arranged that there simply wasn’t time. Now she realized it had more likely been because she’d known she was making a mistake and preferred not to have anyone from her family present as witnesses.

Well, that was all in the past.

“I’ve changed.”

“Developed a conscience after your recent near-death experience?”

Audra sucked in a breath. “So you heard.”

“Again, how could I not? We get the news even here in the sticks.”

“Are you sorry he didn’t succeed?” She asked the question with a casual lift of one brow, even as her heart pounded like a sledgehammer in her chest. It terrified her to think that her sister might actually wish her dead.

Ali didn’t answer. Instead, she asked a question of her own.

“Why are you here, Audra? The island was never good enough for you when we were growing up.”

“That’s not true.”

Ali merely arched an eyebrow. “Why?” she asked again.

“It’s home,” Audra said quietly.

Something in her sister’s countenance seemed to soften, but then she shook her head.

“Don’t expect me to roll out the welcome mat. Dane might do that. But then our brother was always one to try to keep the peace.” She cocked her head to one side. “He just got back from L.A., by the way. He flew out to see you right after watching CNN’s account of the attack. By the time he got to the hospital, though, you had checked out and disappeared.”

It warmed her heart that her big brother still cared so much after all of the hurt she had caused, and it hardened her resolve.

“I’ll apologize to Dane when I see him,” Audra replied. “I’m not going anywhere. I want to apologize to you, too. I’ll be here when you’re ready to listen.”

“Just let it go.”

Ali turned and walked away, leaving Audra to wonder if she meant let go of the need to explain or let go of her sister. Neither was an option.

Seth watched what appeared to be a heated exchange between the two women with interest. What’s the story there? he wondered, as the brunette stalked away. He told himself that it was only because he couldn’t curb his curiosity that he crossed the lobby to where Audra still stood. It wasn’t the fact that she looked so alone or so utterly dejected.

“Is that the family you said you were coming here to meet?” he asked.

She started at his voice, and when she turned he swore tears glittered in her blue eyes, but then she blinked and they were gone. Or maybe they’d never really been there. A trick of the light.

“My sister,” she confirmed.

“Oh? Younger, older?”

“Twin,” she murmured.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. His research had never turned up that fact, but then he hadn’t really been interested in learning anything about her family, only avenging his own.

One side of her mouth lifted in a wry grin. “Don’t say it. I know.”

“What?”

“We don’t look anything alike.”

Seth shrugged and divided a considering look between Audra and her sister, who now stood behind the reception desk a couple dozen feet away, talking with a guest. The women were the same height and polar opposites in every other way: Blond to brunette, blue eyes to tawny-brown, voluptuous to slender. Still, they did have one thing in common.

“Oh, I don’t know. You’re both beautiful.”

She acknowledged the compliment with a small smile and Seth pressed his advantage.

“Let me buy you a cup of coffee. We can take it out onto the porch and make use of a couple of those rockers. The view of Lake Michigan is incredible and the coffee’s not too bad, either.”

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