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  Marshall Stewart

  Both their fathers died of cancer and left them the family business.

  Reed Stewart

  Yeah, but Becky always did like organizing things and bossing people around.

  Carly Stewart

  And Bob was always a tool.

  Marshall Stewart

  Too bad you didn’t listen to Becky, Reed. You might actually have gotten a college education.

  Reed Stewart

  Instead of a six figure endorsement contract with Callaway Golf Clubs? Yes, I weep nightly into my pillow about that, Marshall.

  Carly Stewart

  Yes, I don’t think your brother is doing too badly for himself, Marshall. So if you’ve been on Becky’s Facebook page, Reed, you’ve probably seen that she has a great new boyfriend now. He owns that really nice wine and cheese shop on the courthouse square. He seems really great.

  Reed Stewart

  No. I must have missed that.

  Marshall Stewart

  HA HA HA! Creep fail.

  Carly Stewart

  Marshall, would you please grow up?

  Reed Stewart

  I’ve been seeing a really great woman too. She also owns her own business.

  Marshall Stewart

  Of course she does.

  Carly Stewart

  That’s great, Reed.

  Reed Stewart

  She’s a wine rep. I’m giving her golf lessons.

  Marshall Stewart

  Of course you are.

  Carly Stewart

  Stop it, Marshall. It’s nice that you and your new girlfriend have similar interests, Reed.

  Reed Stewart

  Her name is Valery.

  Carly Stewart

  With a y. How unusual.

  Marshall Stewart

  OK great! So since the two of you are so close why don’t you bring Valeryyyy here tomorrow with you to help us to clean up this mess of Mom and Dad’s.

  Reed Stewart

  Tomorrow? Actually I can’t tomorrow because I have the Golden Palm Invitational next week in Orlando. Valery and I were going to fly down there a little early so I could look at investment properties and maybe get in a few practice rounds before the Golden Palm. My finance guy says if I live in Florida for six months of the year I could save a ton in taxes.

  Marshall Stewart

  Oh, yeah, buddy? Well guess what? I got a different invitation for you. It’s an invitation to the game Carly and I have to play every single day while you’re off looking at investment properties in the Florida sunshine with your new lady friend.

  Carly Stewart

  Marshall.

  Marshall Stewart

  Only in this game, you don’t get any practice swings. Life just throws balls at you all the time, in the form of things like your parents getting arrested, or your seven-year-old kid deciding that she wants to dress like an Indian chief every day and do war dances at the halftime of her older sister’s soccer games, which the other parents tell you is culturally insensitive. And you don’t get days off, or even a choice. It’s the same thing, day in and day out, until you want to stab yourself with the knives your mother gave to your wife for her birthday, because your mother thinks knives are an appropriate gift, and now she needs to have her maxed out credit cards taken away from her. Only in order to do THAT, you need the help of your brother, the brother who NEVER COMES HOME because of something that happened between him and some girl way back in HIGH SCHOOL.

  Carly Stewart

  Marshall!

  Reed Stewart

  All right. All right, I’m sorry. I understand. I’ll book the first decent flight I can get for Indiana.

  Carly Stewart

  Great! See? That’s the Reed I know.

  Reed Stewart

  It’s going to be OK, Marshall.

  Marshall Stewart

  Is it? Is it really??? BECAUSE I DON’T THINK IT IS. I THINK MY PARENTS ARE GOING TO BE LIVING WITH ME AND I AM GOING TO BE SURROUNDED BY CAT FIGURINES AND THEN I WILL GO INSANE.

  Reed Stewart

  No. No, Marshall. I will not let that happen. What cat figurines?

  Carly Stewart

  I’m sorry, Reed. I saw them the last time your parents let me in the house.

  Reed Stewart

  I don’t want to know about this, do I?

  Carly Stewart

  No. Marshall didn’t want to know, either. But I told him anyway. Your mom has over 2,000 ceramic cat figurines, many dressed in adorable period costumes or nursing litters of equally cute ceramic kittens. She even has an Amazon buyer’s account under the name Not-So-Crazy Cat Lady.

  Reed Stewart

  I knew I didn’t want to know.

  Carly Stewart

  I’m so sorry.

  Reed Stewart

  Any chance we can hire back Rhonda?

  Marshall Stewart

  Seriously, dude? Is your stomach all you ever think about?

  Reed Stewart

  I mean because Richard and Connie know and TRUST her and might let her help with the sorting. Not because her baked chicken is the best thing in the world. Even though it is.

  Carly Stewart

  Reed, you don’t understand. This is too big a job for Rhonda. Not just the cleaning, but getting your parents to part with their collections, and eventually getting them out of there. They have to agree to downsize. That’s one thing I know Dr. Jones would agree with—because I drove your dad to his office when he slipped on the ice, and then when your mom got bronchitis. We’re going to need to get them into a new, smaller place, preferably in a warmer climate. I mean, this is all assuming they don’t go to jail for the Shenanigans thing.

  Reed Stewart

  I see. Well, let me talk to my finance guy. I’ve got a bunch of cash squirrelled away. I was saving it for the golf school, but this is obviously more important. I can get you whatever you need.

  Carly Stewart

  Aw, Reed, thanks. That’s really nice of you. Isn’t it nice of Reed, Marshall?

  Marshall Stewart

  I guess.

  Carly Stewart

  Marshall, what’s wrong with you?

  Marshall Stewart

  Money is not what we need at this point.

  Carly Stewart

  Money is EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED AT THIS POINT, Marshall.

  Marshall Stewart

  It’s no use screaming at me in all caps Carly, or from upstairs, either. You’ll only wake the girls.

  Reed Stewart

  So you’re saying you DON’T want my money, Marshall? Because that’s fine by me.

  Marshall Stewart

  THAT ISN’T WHAT I’M SAYING AT ALL. What we need is your body physically here to help for a change. Carly and I can’t do it anymore. I literally cannot go over to 65 Country Club Road one more time for dinner and listen to Dad give me the provenance of every single one of his gavels while completely ignoring the fact that he owes tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes and credit card debt.

  Carly Stewart

  Yes, but we ALSO need your money, Reed. RIGHT, MARSHALL? The real estate business here hasn’t been doing all that well, so we really don’t have the money to lend your parents to get them out of the hole. I don’t know where your sister is getting all the money she’s using to open up a new restaurant in Dearborn. I didn’t think Antonelli’s was doing that great. But Tony’s parents are apparently loaded.

  Marshall Stewart

  Fine. OK, Reed. We need your money. But we want your body, too. Just not in the same way as those women who fall for your cheesy line about being tired of resting your head on a different pillow every night.

  Carly Stewart

  I think he gets that, Marshall.

  Reed Stewart

  Yes, Marshall, I get it. I said I’m coming. I’ll get Richard and Connie back on their feet.

  Marshall Stewart

  STOP CALLING THEM THAT. You do realize we have to take this seriously, don’t you? B
ecause I’m afraid if we don’t, the next thing that shows up in the paper about Mom and Dad is going to be their obituary. You get that, don’t you?

  Reed Stewart

  OK, Marshall. Yes, I get it. I’m sorry I haven’t been around in so long. I swear I’m going to do everything I can to help make it up to you. And to Connie and Richard, too.

  Marshall Stewart

  REED!!!!

  Reed Stewart

  Kidding! I’ll text you with my flight info as soon as I have it.

  Marshall Stewart

  OK. Thanks.

  Reed Stewart

  Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.

  Reed Stewart Left chat 11:05 PM

  Marshall Stewart

  You still here, Car?

  Carly Stewart

  Have you seen me log off?

  Marshall Stewart

  No. Do you believe him? Do you really think he’ll show up?

  Carly Stewart

  Of course. He said he would. He’s never let us down when it’s been important. He sent that check when we needed the loan to buy the house, remember?

  Marshall Stewart

  That was money. This is emotion—and conflict. Reed isn’t good at emotion OR conflict. He runs from them both, as you might have noticed by the way he reacted on his prom night.

  Carly Stewart

  That was different.

  Marshall Stewart

  He could have killed her.

  Carly Stewart

  Marshall, don’t be overdramatic. It was a golf cart.

  Marshall Stewart

  It was a moving vehicle, and he was drunk.

  Carly Stewart

  He’d had a few beers, and he’s never been in trouble since.

  Marshall Stewart

  He’s never been back here since.

  Carly Stewart

  He never forgets your daughters’ birthdays.

  Marshall Stewart

  How hard is that? He has his assistant buy a card and tucks a $10 bill inside. Again, that’s money. I know Reed can do money. What I’m asking is if you think he can do THIS.

  Carly Stewart

  I think Reed still cares about the people he left behind back here in Bloomville, no matter how much he might pretend not to.

  Marshall Stewart

  I’ll believe it when I see it.

  Carly Stewart

  You’ve had a very bad day. Is there anything I can do to make it better?

  Marshall Stewart

  Do you have any strychnine?

  Carly Stewart

  No. But I’m wearing that red teddy you got me for Christmas.

  Marshall Stewart

  The one you said you were going to exchange for long underwear?

  Carly Stewart

  Yes.

  Marshall Stewart

  This has gone from the worst to the best day of my life.

  Carly Stewart

  Carly Stewart Left chat 11:10 PM

  Marshall Stewart Left chat 11:10 PM

  Today I feel blessed because:

  My business is going well.

  I have my health.

  I have a great mom, sister, and boyfriend.

  No. You know what?

  All of the above is lies.

  Not that I’m not grateful for them. I am. I know how lucky I am. I have an amazing life, and so much to feel thankful for.

  But I’m not going to pretend things are going 100 percent great when they’re not. Yeah, things are going 100 percent better for me than they are for some other people—Judge Stewart and his wife, for instance—but it was really hard to remember that this evening at the wine and cheese tasting when that troll Summer Hayes came up to me and asked, right in front of Graham, “So Becky, did you hear about Reed Stewart? He’s coming back, you know.”

  It’s been ten years. Ten years! I’ve been in so many other relationships since Reed and I went out (well, okay—three, including Graham).

  But I’ve had multiple hookups, if you count all the rebounding I did during freshman year, when I still thought I might hear from him.

  I have very definitely moved on.

  So why is it that everyone in this town still links our names together?

  And why is it that whenever his name is mentioned, my heart still flips over in my chest, and I catch my breath—so much so that tonight I started choking on the mouthful of camembert I was chewing?

  It was so hard to pass off an air of casual indifference in front of Summer and her bitchy friends (and I’m sorry, yes, I know it’s anti-feminist to call other women bitches. But I still remember how catty she and her friends were back in high school. Especially since they were seniors when I was a freshman. They should have been supportive of us younger girls. Instead they were always snickering at us. Things have hardly changed).

  “I highly doubt that,” I said to her, after I’d finished choking.

  I think—despite the coughing—I pulled off an air of cool indifference. The glass of pinot noir that Nicole thrust into my hand at the last second definitely helped because I took a long swig from it. That washed down most of the cheese.

  “It’s unlikely he’d come back after all these years for something that’s obviously just a silly misunderstanding,” I went on, still with my air of indifference. “I mean, he has siblings that still live in the area. I’m sure they’re going to handle the situation.”

  Okay, I should add here that I was pretty drunk. Graham says the trick of wine tastings is to sip and spit. But I never spit because spitting is disgusting and wine is delicious. Who (besides Graham, and his wine-loving friends) is ever going to spit out something so lovely? Not me.

  So I might have been slightly intoxicated at that point.

  But not as drunk as Nicole, who of course was knocking back the ice wines Graham had put out as if they were shots. Nicole will not get it through her head that just because something is served in a small glass does NOT mean it’s a shot.

  “I know Reed has siblings in the area, Becky,” Summer said, giving her girlfriends a smirky look. “Carly Stewart, who’s married to Reed’s older brother, just posted something about it on Facebook a few minutes ago. She’s the one saying Reed’s definitely coming back. He’s got a flight booked for tomorrow. So I guess you’re going to have an, uh, interesting week.”

  Then she and all her friends started laughing into their cold shoulder tunics, which I’m sure they got at Ross Dress for Less, because I saw them there last month marked down to twenty-nine ninety-five, which I thought was expensive for something that didn’t even have material around the shoulders.

  Before I could say anything, Nicole—who really was three sheets to the wind, because she’d already had four glasses of pinot and three ice wines, which she’d pounded, not sipped, and no dinner at all except for a couple mouthfuls of camembert and Wabash Cannonball on wheat-free crackers—slid off her barstool and yelled, “Hey! Hey, you bitches! You leave my sister alone! You can all go to—”

  Fortunately at that point Henry stepped in, caught her by the waist before she hit the floor, and said, “Excuse me, ladies. I’m going to take Miss Flowers here outside for a breath of fresh air.”

  “I don’t need any air!” Nicole slurred. “I need to kick those bitches’ asses!”

  Then Nicole did, indeed, try to kick Summer’s ass, but fortunately all she ended up kicking was air, because Henry slung her fireman style over his shoulder and physically carried her from the bar, much to the delight of the other customers, most of whom were his fellow officers from the Bloomville Police Department, and who cheered Henry on.

  “Well,” Summer said, turning back towards me, her smile very snide. “I see that you still choose to keep charming company, don’t you, Rebecca?”

  I was so mad, I wanted to throw my glass of pinot in her pointy face.

  But since I’m a local business owner in the area, and Nicole is a part-owner of that business as well, I could only say, “I apologize for my
sister. She took a decongestant earlier for her allergies, and it appears to have hit her harder than usual.”

  Then I walked away with as much of my dignity as I could muster.

  I wish it had been over after that, but it wasn’t. Because Graham had seen the whole thing (of course, since he was behind the bar), and he kept asking, “Are you okay?” the rest of the night, which was totally humiliating (and slightly annoying), even more humiliating than the way Summer and her friends kept looking at me and smirking and then tapping things into their smartphones.

  I shouldn’t have been annoyed, since it was sweet of him to ask, and perfectly normal.

  But it was still annoying.

  And then of course on the way home—Graham had to drive me, which was ALSO humiliating, because after the incident with Summer, I may have had another glass or three of pinot, so I couldn’t get behind the wheel, and of course Henry had left with Nicole, and there’s no Uber in Bloomville, let alone a taxi company—Graham asked, “Who is this Reed guy everyone was talking about?”

  And so then I had to tell him.

  I didn’t want to, but I felt I owed it to him. He was going to find out anyway.