alive, producing a slideshow of images she was trying to forget. There was no respite. She’d been on the what if and if only roundabout for so many weeks she was dizzy.
This wasn’t like her. She had no idea how to handle it.
“Wait. You’re intending to stop the wedding?”
“Absolutely.” Katie lifted her head. “She’s known him for a few months, Vick.”
“So?”
“So I have cheese in the fridge that’s older than their relationship. What can you possibly know about someone after a few months? It takes time for a person’s worst traits to be revealed, but I intend to fast-track that part.”
Vicky blinked. “To be clear about this—you’re going to Aspen in order to dig up dirt on the man your sister is in love with?”
“Thinks she’s in love with. I’m glad you understand. And I won’t be digging as such. I’ll be spending time with him. I’ve had so much more experience than Rosie at seeing the bad side of people, and I’m not emotionally involved so I won’t find it hard to ask the tough questions.”
Vicky let out a long breath. “This could be your future brother-in-law.”
“Not unless he passes the interview process.”
Vicky shook her head. “I’ve suspected it for a while, but this confirms it. You need help.”
“You mean Rosie needs help. I agree. That’s why I’m doing this.”
“No, I mean you. You’re the one who needs help.” She leaned forward. “Katie, I love you, we’ve been friends since the first day of medical school, but I’m telling you now this is not rational behavior. People don’t fly across the Atlantic to stop a wedding. Normal is going as a guest. You buy a dress. Maybe a hat. Take a gift. Throw confetti. You don’t ask tough questions of the groom and tell the bride you think she’s making a mistake.”
“I don’t think it. She is making a mistake.”
“If it’s a mistake, then it’s her mistake. This isn’t your responsibility, Katie, and it isn’t even your business. Do you want to know what I think? I think you should go to the wedding and relax for once. Stop trying to fix everything and everyone. Aspen is stunning. My parents took me skiing there when I was sixteen. If I had the money, I’d go again. Breathe in fresh air. Chill a little. A Christmas wedding in the snow sounds like fun.”
Not to Katie, but nothing much seemed like fun at the moment.
Maybe Vicky was right. Maybe she needed help. Not because of her reaction to Rosie, which seemed entirely sane to her, but because of the way she felt generally.
Was she clinically depressed? She had no idea. These days she didn’t even have the energy to diagnose herself. “Are you not even the tiniest bit sympathetic that I have to drag myself on a fourteen-hour journey when even the half-hour commute almost finishes me off?”
“You’re going to spend Christmas playing in the snow at a luxury mountain resort and you expect me to feel sorry for you? You’re going to have to work harder.”
Katie tried to smile, but her head was filled with everything serious. She’d forgotten how to laugh and have a lighthearted conversation. She was consumed by guilt, and doubt and—yes—anxiety. And now she had her sister to worry about, too. How was she going to get through a week with family without falling apart? She honestly had no clue.
She knew she wasn’t good company either at work or at home.
Vicky sat down opposite her. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”
Katie lifted her head and looked at her friend. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“A few weeks ago you came home looking worse than you do now, if that’s possible. You didn’t want to talk about it and I respect that, but—you looked traumatized.” Vicky reached across the table and took her hand. “I know something happened at work and I know it’s eating away at you. I’m your best friend, Kat. We’ve known each other forever. You can talk to me.”
“Not about this.” Katie tried to pull her hand away but Vicky tightened her grip. “I’m handling it.”
Vicky finally let her go. “If you don’t want to talk to me, fine, but you have to talk to someone. You can’t carry on like this. Even before that night, your life was ridiculous. You move from home to work and work to home.”
“Plenty of people do the same.”
“But do you even enjoy it? You used to be happy. You used to talk about