Silver Linings

sensible and unemotional. Sort of soothing.”
    “She has her moments,” Hugh said dryly. “But she sure is a hell of a lot different than Ariel, I'll give you that. I could never get a handle on Ariel during our engagement. She was either moping around in some tragic state of depression or else she was exploding. It was a real roller-coaster ride, and it didn't help matters any that I had no patience for any of it after a couple of weeks.”
    Flynn nodded wisely. “Like I said, Ariel needs to be handled delicately.”
    “I'm not the kid-glove type.”
    “No. I can see why you two never made it. I take it you don't seem to have the same problem dealing with Mattie?”
    “No sweat,” Hugh assured him. “Sure, sometimes she gets a little feisty. You've got to watch out for that streak of pride she has. But I understand pride. I can deal with it. Given a little time I can always find a way to settle Mattie down when she occasionally gets a little temperamental.”
    Mattie looked around for something convenient to drop over the loft railing. She considered the tall, heavy black vase but discarded it as overkill. She picked up the glass of water she kept beside the bed instead.
    “The thing about women like Mattie,” Hugh was saying down below, “is that you've got to make them understand…”
    “For the record, Hugh Abbott,” Mattie called as she leaned out over the railing and tipped the full glass of water, “no lady worth her salt likes to hear first thing in the morning that she is so dreadfully dull a man can handle her with ‘no sweat.’ But, then, I've always said you have a lousy way with compliments. No finesse at all.”
    Hugh yelped very nicely and scrambled up out of the chair with amazing speed as the water splashed down over his head and bare shoulders.
    Flynn looked on, amused.
    “Like I said,” Hugh muttered, using a napkin to wipe water off his shoulder, “she has her moments.”
    “I can see that.” Flynn picked up another bran muffin and eyed it critically. “You really like these things?”
    “You get used to them,” Hugh said. “It's the herbal tea and the bug juice that are a little hard to swallow.”

    Mattie sat in her office chair later that morning, her hands folded on the desk, and watched her sister storm back and forth across the room. Ariel had been alternating between tears of rage and tears of self-pity for the past fifteen minutes. It was getting hard to tell the difference. But in either mood she managed to look her usual exotic self in flowing black trousers and a black blouse with billowing sleeves.
    Mattie was again painfully aware of the bland, businesslike look of her coffee-colored suit and beige blouse. Maybe it was the string of pearls that really elevated the outfit to the level of total forgettableness, she decided critically. Or perhaps it was the low-heeled pumps. She really was going to have to go shopping one of these days. The desire for a red business suit was becoming irresistible.
    And maybe, if she got very adventurous, she would invest in a pair of three-inch red spike heels, just like the ones Evangeline Dangerfield had loaned her for that wild night on Brimstone.
    “I'm sorry I blew up at you on the phone this morning,” Ariel said, sniffing delicately into a tissue. “I can't believe I did that. Lately, it's almost like after all these years our roles have been reversed or something. For the first time I've actually been jealous of you. It's so ludicrous.”
    “Simply ludicrous.”
    “It's irrational.”
    “Right. Totally irrational.”
    “Especially when I know there is absolutely no real reason for it,” Ariel concluded.
    “True,” Mattie agreed.
    Ariel swung around and looked at her with eyes that brimmed with sincerity. “I want you to know that I really do realize there is no basis for my irrational jealousy, Mattie. I don't understand it, but I just don't seem to be completely sane on the subject of Flynn. I've never felt this way before about any man.”
    “Maybe that's because you've never been afraid of losing any of your previous men. After all, none of the others have been terribly important to you.”
    Ariel nodded. “I guess that must be it. I really do love Flynn. What I feel for him is so different than what I felt for any of the others. He's the only one who's ever understood me. Well, that's not entirely true. Emery understood me, but it was sort of the way a mentor understands his protégée, you know?