She took a seat on one of the cushioned benches. Honor and Brenna sat across from her.
“So you propositioned him and he turned you down,” Honor said. “That surprises me.”
Erin frowned. “Why?”
“He’s a guy,” Brenna said. “You’d think he’d jump on the opportunity for sex.”
“Oh. I guess. It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m going to change his mind.”
“Good lord, Erin, why?” Honor asked.
She lifted her chin. “Because I intend to have my revenge on Owen. And what better way to do that than with Jason?”
“So you’re going to use Jason to get back at Owen?” Brenna asked.
“It’s hardly using him if we both get sex out of it. And it’s not like I’m declaring my love for him or anything. It’ll just be a fun fling. Then we’ll go back to being friends.”
Honor cast a worried gaze at her. “I don’t know, Erin. I don’t think flings with friends work that way.”
“Well, I’m sure as hell not going to grab some random at a bar and screw him.”
“Of course not,” Brenna said. “Maybe you should . . . rethink this whole revenge-fling idea entirely.”
She shook her head. “Nope. My former fiancé is enjoying our honeymoon in Aruba by himself at the moment. At least I think he’s by himself. For all I know he could be with another woman.”
“I doubt that,” Honor said.
“I don’t doubt anything at this point,” Erin said. “Clearly I don’t know a damn thing about Owen like I thought I did. Anyway, I should be entitled to a little fun, too, don’t you think?”
“Kind of hard to argue with that one,” Honor said, looking over at Brenna.
Brenna shrugged. “I don’t even know what to say. When I got a divorce, I moved back here, started jogging around the property, lost ten pounds and bought new clothes. That was revenge enough for me.”
“And you were miserable the entire time,” Erin said, cocking her head to the side to prove her point. “You should have gotten on another horse immediately. And by horse, I mean another man.”
“I know what you meant. And getting anywhere near another man was the last thing I wanted at the time.”
“Come to think of it, it’s been two years, Brenna. Have you even dated anyone seriously since Mitchell?”
“Not that I’ve noticed,” Honor said.
“I’ve dated. And I’ve been busy. The vineyard keeps me occupied.”
“The vineyard doesn’t give you orgasms,” Erin said.
Honor sputtered out a laugh. Brenna glared at her.
“I can take care of my own orgasms, thank you,” Brenna said.
“Not the same thing at all and you know it. And it’s more than the orgasms I’m after.”
“You want everyone in town to know you’ve moved on, that you’ve got a guy and you’re having the time of your life and not thinking about Owen at all.”
She looked over at Honor and nodded. “Exactly.”
“I can understand that. You’re hurt and you don’t want people to feel sorry for you. I think it’s more that people are hurting for you.”
“I don’t want that, either. I just want to go back to the way things were—without Owen, of course.”
She sighed. She had to go to the condo and get her stuff, then figure out how to get out of the lease. No, she’d let Owen figure that out. He caused this mess, he could deal with the condo. Or live in the condo by himself. She really didn’t care what he did.
All she wanted was to have some fun. Why was that too much to ask?
“You know what I think?” Brenna asked.
“No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.”
“I think you should do whatever makes you happy. If you want to have a fling, go have a damn fling. Go have wild monkey sex. Burn bright, little sister. You damn well deserve it after what Owen did to you.”
Erin blinked. This was so not like her normally reserved oldest sister. “Seriously.”
“Yes. I know I’m always the one to advise caution, but you should grab some happiness for yourself, especially right now. I did it all wrong after Mitchell and I divorced. And all I’ve been doing is hiding out ever since.”
Honor cracked a smile. “Now you’re talking, Brenna.”
“So does that mean you’re going to get out there and start dating again?” Erin asked, hopeful that her sister would do something other than run the vineyard with Dad.
“I have dated some, just not a lot. And I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m more interested in you getting back on your feet again.”
Erin stood and looked down at her feet. “Look at me. Back on my feet. Back to you, Brenna.”
“Funny.” Brenna stood. “I’m doing just fine. I have the vineyard, the garden, my friends, my other projects. I stay plenty busy.”
Brenna always had a project going on. She loved the vineyard, but she also loved planting vegetables with Mom, and there were fresh flowers in the house because the Bellini property had loads of flowers thanks to Brenna’s green thumb. And there was always something new and exciting to read in the library thanks to Brenna’s frequent trips to the bookstore in the city. And their family lineage on both the Bellini and Connor sides had been traced back to the eighteenth century thanks to Brenna’s detailed work on genealogy.
But what Erin wanted for Brenna was to put the pain of her divorce aside and find someone worthy of her love. She had so much of it to give.
“Those are things,” Honor said. “Projects to occupy your time. We both want you to be happy.”
Brenna held out her hands. “I am happy. And we aren’t talking about me. We’re talking about Erin.”
“I’m fine,” Erin said. “And I’ll take my love life—correction—sex life, into my own hands.”
Honor wrinkled her nose. “You might want to rephrase that.”
Realizing what it sounded like, Erin said, “Good point. I’ll go after what I want and I’ll get it.”
“Atta girl,” Brenna said. “As for me, I’ll take everything you both said under advisement.”
Which meant Brenna would consider being Brenna. But she hoped her sister would get out there and start dating again.
In the meantime, Erin had to figure out how to get Jason on board with her plan for hot revenge sex. Because she was going to do this. Do him.
She just had to get him to agree to it.
CHAPTER
six
JASON FINISHED MEASURING, then cut the piece of wood he was going to use to fit to the deck he was building in the backyard. He nailed it to the pieces already in place, then measured for the next piece. He went back to the saw and swiped sweat from his face. It was damn hot, but he wanted to get as much of this deck done as he could before the sun went down.
Puddy had a ball in his mouth. He flung the ball up in the air, then did a terrible job of catching it. But since it rolled away, it was a fun game for him. At least his dog was good at amusing himself.
A truck rolled up in the driveway, so Puddy ran to the gate and wagged his tail. Clay Henry stepped out and came to the gate with his Labrador, Homer.