“What do you want me to say? No, no, please don’t be with her, I couldn’t bear it, my heart would shatter into a million—”
“Sure, why not?” As usual she’d nailed him. Sandra didn’t tolerate male ego. Or female, but that didn’t apply to him so he didn’t care. Since that intolerance was one of the things he respected about her, he’d better not get pissed off about it now that it was directed at him.
“Dream on.” She reached over and smacked his arm. “You know how I feel about you. I adore you. And I know we both talked about things working out ultimately between us. But in the meantime, we both have full license to try to find someone more suitable. So you need to do what you need to do.”
“It won’t bother you?”
She turned to him, lowering her sunglasses and peering at him over their bright red frames. “Would it bother you if our situations were reversed and you thought I had a real chance to be happy?”
He narrowed his eyes, turning that one over, remembering her face inches from Erik’s. “Well...no. But I wouldn’t want to watch.”
“Exactly.” Sandra pushed her glasses back up. “I will not suffer, I promise you that. Your happiness is important to me. And Allie seems fabulous. Okay? Are we good now?”
He leaned over and kissed her cocoa-buttery cheek. “We are good.”
“Next item.”
“Yeah.” Jonas settled back onto the sand. “Erik.”
“Mmm, you leave him to me.”
He gave a startled laugh. “What do you mean?”
“I have plans for Erik.”
A queasy feeling started in Jonas’s stomach. “What kind of plans?”
“Plans that will make him forget he ever wanted your Allie.”
He felt a sting of jealousy. “Jeez, Sandra, you’re going to sleep with my brother?”
“No one’s asking you to watch.” She repositioned her head, smiling smugly. “Maybe yes, maybe no. But I’m definitely going to make him desperate to sleep with me.”
“How are you going to—” He shook his head, trying to process the concept of Sandra going after his brother. “Never mind, I don’t want to know.”
“Smart boy.”
“But I do want to know one thing.”
“Mmm?” She turned her face more directly toward the sun.
“Why are you doing this? So I can be with Allie?”
“Ha!” Her brows drew down disdainfully. “Do I look like Pollyanna?”
“Uh, no, that’s why I’m asking.”
“It’s a chick thing,” she said primly.
Jonas made a growling sound. “Meaning I wouldn’t understand because I have male equipment.”
“Exactly.”
“Which means whatever it is, it makes no sense.”
“Not to you, no.”
“Okay, okay, have your private babe club. I still have to talk to Erik, though.” He brightened. “Hey, if he gives up on Allie willingly, you won’t have to torment him on my account.”
“Yes, I will.” She stretched her soft arms above her head and let them drop. “But you wouldn’t understand that, either.”
“I’m sure I wouldn’t.” He rolled his eyes, wondering if on some weird level, Sandra actually liked his brother. Was that possible? He didn’t see why not. Guys a lot more horrible than Erik had been happily paired off. Erik just needed grounding. And to grow up a little. Maybe Sandra could make that happen. Jonas wouldn’t put anything past her.
He spent another half hour enjoying the sun until he heard Erik’s car returning from town where he’d taken Allie to buy groceries. If Allie disappeared back up into the attic, Jonas would get the chance to talk to Erik alone.
Allie’s laugh floated down from the parking area. His heart beating faster, Jonas got up and walked toward them, pulling his shirt back on. “Need help?”
“Nah, we’re fine.” His brother wasn’t overtly hostile, but Jonas could sense his annoyance. You grew up with someone, you got pretty good at reading him.
“If you want to get back to the attic, Allie, I can help Erik unload.”
“Oh, I don’t mind helping.” She glanced uncertainly at Erik, looking as girlish in her crazy peacock shorts as she had looked womanly in the lingerie upstairs.
“Go on.” Jonas went to take the groceries from her, gave her a quick nod and tipped his head pointedly toward Erik, hoping she’d understand.
She gave a quick nod back and released the bag. “If you’re sure, I’d love to get back up there. I have a mystery to solve.”
“Really.” He had to make himself move toward the house or he would have stood there gazing at her like a fool. “What kind of mystery?”
“In one of your great-grandmother’s trunks some of the clothes have tags with numbers on them.”
Erik looked disappointed. “That’s your mystery?”
“I was hoping for a treasure map,” Jonas said.
“Men.” Allie laughed and held the door open for him and Erik, then left them to unload the groceries in the kitchen and hurried upstairs.
“So, Erik.” Jonas pulled out a bag of sweet-corn ears and laid it on the counter. “Looks like we have a complicated situation here.”
“Yeah?” Erik put away a couple of fabulous-looking steaks, not meeting his brother’s eye, his jaw set.
Jonas gritted his teeth. He wasn’t going to make this easy. “With you and me, Sandra and Allie.”
“How so?”
“Cut the crap. We need to talk about this.”
“I don’t have anything I need to talk about. If you have a problem, feel free to tell me what it is.”
Jonas took out a couple of bottles of sparkling water and barely resisted throwing them at his brother’s head. “Okay, Erik. Here’s my problem. There’s something happening between Allie and me, and I don’t feel I can do anything about it unless you and I talk it out.”
“What about Sandra?”
“She’s fine with it.”