Playing All the Angles (12 page)

“You don’t know what she’s like,” Alora insisted. “Look around, Dominic. Do you see even her own family disagreeing with what I said? No. Because it’s the truth. She’s been nothing but trouble and nothing but a problem since she was old enough to flash her knickers. Did Issie ever tell you why Eve got sent away?”

Eve laid a hand on Dominic’s shoulder. “Thanks,” she said, patting him, blocking Alora’s words with her own. “I appreciate the sentiment.” She looked around with a wry smile, noting Isabelle’s horrified tears, and winked at her again. “Yeah, this isn’t fun anymore, so I’m going to be heading out. Piñata looks great, Dad. Mother. I’ll call you, Issie. Don’t cry.”

She turned to walk away but glanced back at Dominic, announcing, “I got sent away because I got pregnant when I was fourteen. I miscarried then. Alora seems to think it’s some great mark on my character, but I’m not ashamed of it. And don’t worry, Lora. I’ll tell Olive not to say ‘pimp’ on the way out. I’ll teach her ‘cunt’ instead.”

“You will not!” Alora screamed after her, trying to get around Dominic. “You stay away from my children!” She turned to her husband. “Don’t let her in the house, Doyle! I don’t want her in my house!”

Doyle looked dumbstruck and didn’t move until Alora dodged Dominic altogether and followed after Eve, yelling curses and admonitions all the way. Only then did Doyle make any attempt to follow her, but Dominic had stalked after her before anyone else had the chance.

“She’s going,” he said, getting in front of Alora again, blocking her path. “Just leave it! You’re making a fool of yourself.”

“I’m making a fool of myself? I’m not the one who got—” she started, but Dominic gave her a hard look and cut her off.

“Don’t say it. Just—Alora, you don’t know what you’re talking about, so you should just stop talking for once.”

“Who do you think you are? You think you can marry my baby sister and then come bossing—”

“Enough, Alora,” her mother finally said, her voice gruff with emotion. “You know I don’t like to see you fighting. Just sit down and stop upsetting yourself. It’s not good for the baby. You’re above this. She’s simply seeking attention. It’s the same as always.”

Isabelle watched Dominic’s fingers flex into fists, and as though he’d felt her eyes on him, he jammed them down into the pockets of his jeans. She knew he had never thought much of Alora. He’d said so the day he had met her. He had said that the two sisters couldn’t have been more different, no matter how much they looked alike. Then she had introduced him to Eve, and he’d laughed like she’d made some great joke. After that, he hadn’t mentioned her name again. She thought about that when he sat back down next to her, his sudden interest in the family’s aggravation alarming and confusing.

He glanced her way. “You all right?”

Isabelle nodded but didn’t speak, her eyes still wide with surprise as she watched him pull himself together. When he turned to look at her, she shifted her gaze past him to where her parents and Doyle were gathered around Alora, trying to calm her down. “We should go,” she said quietly after a long pause.

“Yeah, let’s,” he agreed, standing up and offering his hand.

Isabelle shook her head. “I’ll go and say our goodbyes. Will you get the car?”

“Of course.”

She watched him trot from the house before crossing the room to her family. Things would probably be fine now that Eve had gone. This was just the family unit, so everything would be fine. Or they would be fine once Olive quit repeating her aunt’s colorful vocabulary. Isabelle doubted they would make much of Dominic’s involvement. They’d forgive him as not knowing Eve well enough to be reasonable. Reasonable wasn’t a word normally associated with her sister, so how could they fault Dominic?

Alora saw her approach and opened both arms. “I’m so sorry, Issie,” she said, sniffing loudly. “We should all be happy and celebrating today. I shouldn’t let her get to me like that.”

“It’s all right.” Isabelle hugged her sister. Whatever made Alora and Eve hate each other so much had happened long before Isabelle was old enough to remember, and she had long since stopped trying to sort the two of them out. They were equally as ill-behaved in her book, though that was something only one of the sisters could ever endure hearing. “I hope you can still enjoy your shower.”

One last dramatic sniff, and Alora took a step back. “Of course we can. We’ll just pretend she never happened. We’ll toast to you and Dominic and Baby Three here.”

“Actually, Dominic and I are going to go home. He’s still not used to us all. You know. He’s not used to our histrionics.”

Their mother rolled her eyes and wandered off back into the living room, their father and Doyle following along like hapless puppies. It was a terrible dynamic, Isabelle thought. From the outside, it was truly dysfunctional.

“She ruined it for you, didn’t she?”

“Not at all. No one ruined anything for me.”

Dominic came striding back into the house as she finished her sentence, and he hailed her from the door, so Isabelle leaned in to kiss her sister’s cheek. “I’ll call you later. Okay? We’ll meet for tea sometime next week, and we can have a good, old-fashioned bitch-fest then.”

“Bitch!” Olive cried happily, hugging Isabelle’s ankles as Alora slapped a hand against her own forehead.

Alora raised an eyebrow at Isabelle, who struggled not to laugh.

“Sorry. She was bound to hear it sooner or later.”

“Get on, you.”

Isabelle dodged the swat her sister aimed at her, blew kisses to the rest of the family, peeled Olive from her legs, and went to meet Dominic at the door. She took his hand, waving behind her as they left, and let him help her into the passenger seat of the car.

“I found Eve walking to the bus stop, and I told her to wait and we’d drive her home. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course!” Isabelle cried.

Dominic nodded, then he whipped around into his own seat and latched the safety belt. He shifted into gear, drove up to the corner where he’d left Eve, and cursed to find it empty. “She was right here.”

“She’s probably embarrassed,” Isabelle said thickly. “And you two don’t exactly like each other, so your gallant display probably embarrassed her more. Mind you, I thought it was brilliant and well put.”

Dominic seemed to be scouring the street for any sign of her, but there was none, so he drove slowly up the lane until he came to the empty bus stand. “Alora’s a spoiled brat,” he said to the dashboard.

“Duh. And Eve likes to press her buttons. And you just watched Eve pressing all her buttons. She’s just utterly self-destructive when it comes to this family.”

He glanced crosswise and said, “That sounds like you’re taking Alora’s side.”

“I’m not taking any sides.” Isabelle frowned. “What Alora said was awful, but Eve knew what she was doing. She made a scene on purpose, and honestly, if you hadn’t said anything, it would have died out. I mean, I love that you said something—it was sweet—but that’s just how they are. They are both awful to each other. Alora’s right that you don’t know Eve. You don’t know how she can be, and believe me, she’s put in her time tormenting Lora. It’s a mutual hate fest.”

“I’ve never heard Eve start anything like Alora does.”

“And you weren’t around to see her stealing all Alora’s boyfriends, either. Every holiday Eve came home from boarding school, she’d make it her life’s work to nab whatever poor boy Alora had started seeing. Sometimes I think she married Doyle because she knew Eve would rather gargle razor blades than touch him.”

“I’m just telling you what it looks like to an outsider. Your mum and Alora always look ready to take a bite out of her jugular. Your father seems like he’d just as soon pretend she wasn’t his. You’re the only one who’s decent.”

“She put them through rather a lot in her teen years.”

“Who didn’t put their parents through it? Aside from you?”

“You don’t understand. Besides, she and I’ve got a different relationship than she and Lora. I was like her living diary when she was away at school. She’d write me and tell me everything, and I loved her stories and hung on every word. I like to think I understand her more than the rest of them. She just doesn’t fit the family. Mum and Alora are really close, like Dad and I are close. It’s not that they don’t care for her; it’s just that Eve drives Mum crazy, and Dad just doesn’t know how to react to her. It’s complicated. She’s complicated. Half the time, on purpose.”

Dominic shook his head. “With me, David, and Duncan, there aren’t issues like that.”

“You’re boys. Boys are different.”

“I hope we have boys.” His mouth was set.

“I hope we have at least one of each,” Isabelle said lightly, glancing over at him. “But it doesn’t really matter. We’re not like my parents, so I’m sure our children will be lovely.”

“Well-mannered, at least.”

“They won’t turn up to each other’s parties and try to show their siblings up.”

“Or call each other horrible names. Alora was way out of line.”

“So was Eve.”

“She didn’t do anything!” Dominic barked. “She just turned up pregnant.”

Isabelle sighed, modulating her voice carefully. “Dominic, I appreciate the fact that you’re feeling so chivalrous toward my sister, but even you must admit that it wasn’t long ago that you were telling me what a ‘piece of work’ Evie is.”

“She is a piece of work,” he said earnestly, “but she’s not malicious.”

Isabelle snorted. “Yes, she is!”

“She—”

“Dominic! You think she wasn’t delighted to show up at Alora’s shower with her own bump? You think she wasn’t thrilled to completely take the focus off Alora? Motherhood is Alora’s thing. That’s her one and only thing. She is the one of us who is good at being a wife and a mum. She didn’t go to school. She doesn’t have a flashy career or any career prospects. Now I’m a wife, too, and that’s hard for her—I’m encroaching, but she trusts me to be generous. But to have Eve turn up like that? Alora’s already emotional and easily distressed, and Eve turns up pregnant and in a shirt you can see through entirely? Did you see Doyle? He was practically salivating!”

“Men have always looked at her like that,” Dominic dismissed. “You get used to it. You’d think Alora would be used to it by now. And I’m sorry if she’s so insecure she can’t handle things, but she was out of line.”

Isabelle started to respond, then paused. “You get used to it?” she repeated, looking at him. “What does that mean?”

“What?”

“You said, ‘men have always looked at her like that. You get used to it.’ Where did that come from? You’ve only seen Eve a handful of times since I introduced you.”

“Well…” Dominic hemmed, and Isabelle watched a vein start to throb in his forehead, his color changing as he tried to find words.

“Dominic?” she asked incredulously. “What did you mean?”

He took a few deep breaths, then blew the last one out. “Okay. I’m letting a cat out of a bag. Eve made me promise I wouldn’t say anything. When I—when we—Issie, Eve and I were at Uni together. When we ran into each other at your parents’ house, when she—when we were dating…we agreed never to say anything about it. It was too weird. I was afraid if you knew, you’d stop seeing me, and she was afraid if your family found out, it would mean trouble for her. So, we agreed to act like we’d never met. But we
had
met.”

There was stunned silence in response, Isabelle staring at him with wide eyes, the color paling in her cheeks. “What? Did you date her?”

“Sort of.”

“Sort of? What does that mean? Were you just fucking her?”

“No! I mean…it was casual, but we were friendly. We were never exclusive or anything like that. We never had a romantic attachment. It was friendly. Casual.”

Isabelle gasped, her mouth dropping open. She tried to form words, but none came for a long moment. Then she found her tongue. “You were casual? You were having casual sex? You’ve slept with Eve? My sister?”

“This is why I didn’t want to tell you. This…this right here. Because it wasn’t a thing, and it didn’t even end so much as we just quit calling each other. It was two years before I saw her again at that party, and I was head over heels for you. I told her so. She swore she’d have my head if I hurt you, and we agreed this would hurt you, so we never said anything. But that’s why I can’t stand how Alora is with her. I
do
know her, Issie, and Alora’s out of line.”

Isabelle didn’t respond, and the silence grew thick and icy until they arrived home. As soon as he’d stopped the car in the drive, she got out and hurried into the house, slamming the front door behind her.

She heard him following behind, calling for her after she’d gone into the master bath and had locked the door. The handle jiggled, and she glared at it.

“Isabelle?” he called. “Issie? Will you let me in?”

“No!”

“Issie, please…”

“Did you compare notes? Which one of us was hotter? Which one was better in bed? Did you brag to your club about bagging sisters?”

“No!” His voice rose. “Issie, I love you. I never loved her. She never loved me.”

Somehow, that made it worse, and she sobbed angrily. “All Alora had to worry about was if Eve was feeling sour enough to steal one of her rotten losers, but I have to find out that I’m married to one of her cast-offs!”