Her Sister's Fiancé

But the second time, the did-that-really-happen, Oh-my-God-it-did time, as he tended to think of it. The no-denying-it-anymore-time, trouble-is-definitely-here, what-the-hellhad-he-done-time. After which, he’d wallowed in guilt and confusion and, if he was really honest with himself, an overwhelming sort of…desire.

For his fiancée’s little sister.

Rot in hell, Joe. You deserve it.

“Uhh hmmm.”

Standing in front of him, Marta cleared her throat pointedly, then frowned at him.

“Sorry,” he said. “Where were we?”

“Your lunch appointment? You were going to tell me who it’s with, so I know to send him in when he arrives.”

Joe tugged at his tie, which was getting tighter with every passing second. When had it gotten so hot in here? They’d turned on the air-conditioning last week, hadn’t they? It wouldn’t go off until sometime in September, at least.

He was starting to sweat when he realized something was going on in the bank. Or rather, that, oddly, nothing was going on in the bank.

A hush had come over the place. Through the glassed-in walls to his office, he could see that people had frozen in place and started to stare, mouths hanging open.

He leaned to the left, then the right, not able to see much of anything to either side of Marta. Her bracelet jingled, as she turned around, too, and started trying to figure out what was going on.

To the back of the lobby near the doors, he saw heads turning. More and more heads. She was halfway through the room now, judging by the stares.

Joe saw someone reach for a cell phone and hit speed-dial. Someone else looked like they were trying to ready their phone to take a photograph.

Great.

They could capture the moment for posterity and share it with the whole town.

When Joe met Kathie again, right there in the bank…

Marta gasped and jingled as her hand went, too late, to cover her mouth. “It’s her!”

His secretary was fiercely loyal to him. She was one of the few people in town who didn’t blame Joe for what happened. He noted with amazement that she had positioned herself between Joe and the door to his office, as if to shield him with her body from the walking disaster in the lobby, which had Joe fighting not to laugh.

The idea that Marta was so terrified of what might happen next to poor Joe that she’d physically stand between him and Kathie Cassidy was both sad and hilarious. Sad that she thought he needed protecting that much and hilarious at the idea that anything as insubstantial as a person standing between them would be enough to keep Kathie from doing whatever it was that she did to him.

Because he just wasn’t himself around her.

It was like she short-circuited something in his supremely logical, well-organized, methodical brain, and he became someone he didn’t even know, someone he couldn’t begin to understand.

And what was his role in this charade today?

To act smitten?

He fought down another laugh.

Smitten?

Had he ever come close to being smitten with anyone?

Everything he’d ever felt for her sister had been completely reasonable and sensible. He’d been so happy to find someone who suited him so perfectly, who believed in the same things he did and had the same kind of calm, reasoned approach to life that he did. Theirs had been the completely rational, confident kind of courtship he’d always been seeking and feared he’d never find, because most women were…well, not so calm or rational or well-organized.

And Kathie…he would have never believed she was capable of causing havoc in anyone’s life.

She could be quiet as a mouse most of the time. Kate was the one in charge, the strong, smart, determined one. Kim was the baby of the family, full of energy and exuberance. Jax was…well, Jax. As flashy and outgoing as Joe was serious and calm.

Kathie could easily disappear in the midst of them, hardly uttering a word. Sometimes when the whole Cassidy family was together, he forgot she was even there.

He’d known about the crush, of course. No way he could not have known. But that had been over for years, he’d believed. She’d always been kind to him, always noticed him but never done anything in recent years to make him think her feelings for him were anything but a history likely to embarrass her.

In a lot of ways, he’d still thought of her as a teenager. It was like she hadn’t aged a day since he’d first met her, when Kate had brought him home to meet her family for the first time.

Little Kathie Cassidy.

His undoing.

“What do you want me to do?” Marta whispered to him urgently? “Get rid of her?”

“No, I don’t want you to get rid of her,” he said, all but prying open his own mouth after that and trying to force out the words, She’s my date. No luck. He just couldn’t get them out.

“I will if you want me to. I can do it. I get rid of people you don’t want to see all the time. I’m good at it.”

She made it sound like she’d been taking lessons from Jax, twisting arms and threatening people with broken kneecaps or something. It was a bank, for God’s sake.

“No one’s getting rid of anyone,” Joe said. “She’s here to see me.”

“Not if you don’t want her to. No one gets in to see you if you don’t want them to.”

“Marta—”

“I’m his lunch date,” Kathie announced to what seemed like the entire building.

Marta gasped.

Maybe the entire room did, as well. Joe couldn’t be sure.

He was too busy staring at her.

No naughty, French-maid-like outfit today.

Just jeans that were the tiniest bit snug and a little no-nothing, T-shirt-like top. Nothing that should have made her look so good, so young and fit and…

Something had happened to her while she’d been gone, he decided.

She looked…different. Not so teenage-girlish.

Oh, she still looked impossibly young to his thirty-one years, but not the way she used to.