The Seduction Game

“Dad was going to do that.”

Will turned to see Lissie, his oldest niece, hands on hips, the exact image of her mom. He pulled her into a one-armed hug and landed a sloppy kiss on her head. “Well, I saved him the trouble.”

“Ewww, Uncle Will, I’m too old for kisses. And Dad would never have got round to it. Mom says he needs to get his ass in gear.”

“Mom would wash your mouth out with soap if she heard you talk like that.”

“She would not!”

Will laughed as they made their way into the house, Lissie alternating between giving him a running monologue about starting a rock band with a girl at school and her plans for world domination. He shook his head. Wasn’t it just yesterday she’d been toddling around in a diaper?

The moment they opened the door Will was quickly assaulted by another niece and then, at last, by Jenny.

“I missed you, Will!” she shrieked. “It feels like you’ve been gone forever and ever. How long has it been?” She did not pause for an answer. “Too long. Next time you can invite the girls and me along. We’ll keep you company. Mom and Dad have missed you, too. Dad had no one to go out on the boat with and Mom never heard the end of it. Did you see them yet?”

“As soon as I got home,” he said, getting a word in while he could. He dropped a kiss on Mellie’s head, where she was bent over whatever important work she was doing and scooped toddling Rachel into his arms. “Mom had a bunch of paperwork for me to sort through.”

Jenny laughed and placed a set of chunky pens on Mellie’s little mini desk. “Well, you should never have made her the head of finance at The Moorings,” Jenny said, referring to one of Will’s developments on the harbor. “You know what a stickler she is for details.”

“That I do,” he agreed, the image of his very efficient mom coming to mind. “But I’ll never be able to fire her. Dad’d kill me if she was home all the time. Says it’s the first bit of peace he’s had since they got married, and besides, she’s better qualified than most of the people that applied for the job.”

“It’s good for them to have some space,” Jenny said, filling up the coffeepot. “Couples need it or they go mad.”

The tone of her voice made Will stop tickling Rachel to take a good look at his sister. The distance of all the weeks abroad gave him a new perspective and he didn’t like what he was seeing. A naturally very pretty girl, Jenny was looking significantly more worn-out and stressed than the last time he’d seen her. Her jeans were hanging low on her hips and her tee shirt was stretched tight against a stomach that was looking far too thin for Will to be comfortable with. For a moment, he couldn’t help but compare her to Kate. Although the geek was tiny, it was obviously her natural shape, but Jen?

“Is everything okay, sis?” he asked, passing Rachel to Lissie and indicating she should take her and Mellie into the family room. Lissie stuck her tongue out but did as she was asked.

Jen busied herself with arranging a plate of tiny sandwiches and two mugs for the coffee so she didn’t answer immediately, but then she turned, ran a hand through her long hair, and shot him a smile.

“Of course. The girls are driving me mad, the house is a complete shit hole, and my husband is never home. What could possibly be wrong?”

“Right…”

Will closed the kitchen door on what sounded suspiciously like an episode of American Dad. Jen would lose her mind if she knew Lissie was watching, and letting her sisters watch it, but a bit of privacy was needed, so he let it go. He took Jen’s hand, put the coffeepot in the machine, and sat her down at the table.

“What’s going on?”

“Take a look around.” She sighed. He did and could almost see what she meant. Dishes were piled up on the counters, clothes were spilling out of the laundry basket, and the girls’ toys and things were spread haphazardly about.

“I offered you a maid,” he began but she shook her head.

“I can clean my own goddamn house, big brother, and besides Chris should be helping out. If he wasn’t working every single hour God freaking sends, maybe he would.”

Will frowned. “Jen, I don’t know what to say to that. He’s contracted for forty hours and he knows my feelings about employees working overtime, especially family men.”

“He avoids coming home on purpose.”

“I’m sure that’s not the case.”

“Of course it is. He moans that the girls are hard work. Freaks out when I ask him to fix stuff around the house. I don’t even know why I bother, I can do it better myself, anyway. And he’s had a major hissy fit since I started back at college.”

“And how are classes going?”

Jen brightened the moment he asked that question and pointed to her laptop and papers on the desk, squeezed into the small alcove next to the utility room. “I am so enjoying it, Will. It’s interesting and challenging and so much fun. The day care your assistant suggested is superb and Rach loves it. It just takes up more time than I’d bargained on. I drop Lissie and Mellie off at school and then Rach at day care and then I go off to classes. By the time we’re all home and I’ve cooked dinner, I have no energy left.”

“That’s understandable,” Will said gently. “So don’t beat yourself up about it.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you lived in this shit heap.”

He shrugged. “The girls are happy. They’re well cared for and well behaved. You’re finally doing something for yourself. Who cares if the house is messy?”

“Chris.”

Chris. Will stood up and brought the sandwiches over to the table, pleased to see Jen grab two and devour them in quick succession. He then busied himself with sorting out the coffee, more because he wanted a moment to think than anything else. Fact of the matter was, he’d never liked Chris for Jen. He was an okay kind of guy in his own way, as far as Will could see, but he was not cut out to be a family man and it had caused no end of problems over the years. In the end, Will had brought his brother-in-law to work for him simply to ensure he kept a job and looked after his family. Though not skilled in any particular area, Chris worked hard…too hard by the sound of it.

“Chris loves you,” Will said eventually.

“Chris is an ass who is one step away from a divorce,” Jen whispered. “Seriously, Will, if he doesn’t get a major attitude adjustment it’s going to happen.”

“Jen—”

“I’m not saying it’s a certainty,” she added. “It’s not. He might surprise the hell out of me and sort his shit out, but going back to college has made everything seem a little different…”

She shrugged. Silence reigned for a moment. Jen ate a few more sandwiches, Will put some plates in the dishwasher and rubbed down the counters, resolving as he did so to have a conversation with Chris next time he saw him. It was a difficult line to walk, though—employer one moment, brother-in-law the next, and for the past two years Chris had been working for him, Will had found it tricky. Still, Jen was his family and if that meant Chris had to be given another dressing-down, then so be it.

“You’re my family,” Will said. “You know I’ll help however I can.”