job at the Sentinel, it was all but gone except for when she drank too much.
“I didn’t like him, Vanna. I know you did, so I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but I just know there’s someone better out there for you. Someone right.”
“It’s okay. He turned out to be a rat.”
Scarlet nodded. “You can say that again.”
“It was my own fault for not seeing what you saw over one dinner. What’s number seven?”
“Oh!”
Scarlet turned her attention back to the magazine while Savannah leaned forward to pick up her glass of iced tea. The glass was sweaty with cool droplets that dripped into the space between her breasts as she sipped.
“‘Number seven, the first time you realize that you don’t want anyone else but him.’”
Well, Savannah had certainly reached that point with Patrick, unable to see anyone but him, all other men paling in comparison to his tony pedigree, patrician looks, and far-reaching contacts. Too bad Patrick had never subscribed to the same devotion. Finding out he’d been dating someone else while they were sleeping together had just been salt in the wound after she discovered that he’d single-handedly destroyed her professional credibility, reputation, and career.
“Next,” demanded Savannah.
“I love this one. ‘The first time you see a future with him.’” Scarlet sighed. “First grade. Playground. Trent pushed me on the swings even though the other little boys were makin’ fun of him.”
Savannah loved her sister, but she couldn’t imagine plotting out her future with someone who’d pushed her on the swings in first grade. She’d never understood how Scarlet could be so content to be born, grow up, get married, and die in one small town when there was a whole wide world out there just waiting.
“How about number nine?”
Scarlet’s dreamy expression turned to a grin. “‘The first time you take a trip together.’”
“That’s a mixed bag.”
“How do you mean?”
“Hard to look perfect when you first wake up in the morning. Not to mention, travel breeds stress.”
“I though you loved travel!” exclaimed Scarlet. “My globe-trotting sister.”
“Oh, I do. Alone. To chase a story. Why in the world would I want to go away with someone else?”
“Because you love them? Because Hawaii is more fun with . . . ” Scarlet’s cheeks pinked delicately, and she averted her eyes.
“I don’t remember you and Trent ever goin’ to Hawaii,” teased Savannah.
“Honeymoon,” said Scarlet in a dramatic whisper.
“Aha. So you’ve decided. Well, I’ve heard it’s very romantic.”
Scarlet’s delicate blush spread to her neck as she turned redder.
Savannah laughed at her prim little sister. “Scarlet, you’d think you’d never kissed a boy, for heaven’s sake. What’s next?”
“‘Number ten, the first big blowup fight,’” Scarlet sniffed. “Well, I just hope I never have to experience that.” She rapped her fingers lightly on the arm of the swing, her pink lacquered nails catching the warm light of the low sun.
“Do you mean to tell me that you and Trent have never had a big fight?”
“Vanna, honey, why in the world would I want to have a spat with the man I love? The odd quarrel’s one thing, but more than anything, I want to make him feel loved and comfortable and happy. Besides, he’s so smart and so good to me, he’s almost always right.”
“And when he’s not?”
“You get more bees with honey.”
Savannah laughed lightly. “So you use your wiles to get your way?”
“It beats fighting.”
“I’m guessing you’ve never had makeup sex, though, Scarlet. You’re missing out.”
Scarlet shrugged, expertly avoiding the implied question. “Nothing’s worth bein’ at odds with Trent. Nothin’.”
“Fine. Have it your way. What’s next?”
“‘Number eleven, the first time you realize he’s your home.’” Scarlet sighed. “Doesn’t that sound lovely?”
For all of Savannah’s world-weary cynicism, she had to admit that it did sound lovely. As she’d fallen in love with Patrick, she started to realize how wonderful it would be to give her heart to someone, how amazing it would be to know he had her back and was on her side, how, yes, lovely it would be to know that her life was safe with his: entwined, inextricably bound together.
She forced herself to remember the cruel glee in his eyes when he confessed that, yes, he had fed her bucketfuls of misinformation in an effort to subvert the true story behind the embezzlement of his father’s financial firm. And Savannah—stupid Savannah, who thought she was falling in love with him—had been nothing more than a cheap mark, a cheap lay, and in the end, totally expendable.