That didn’t bother him. The way he saw it, part of an older brother’s role was to drive his sister crazy.
He stood to one side to let her in and finished his phone call. “I’ll increase the order if you’ll halve the cost.” He waved a hand to the coffee machine and Paige strolled across the kitchen and poured herself a mug while Matt negotiated a price he could live with.
When he finally ended the call she was sipping coffee, her hands wrapped around the mug.
“I’d forgotten how good you are at driving a hard bargain. I still remember the residents of Puffin Island muttering dark threats when you raised your prices for cutting their grass in the summer. You were fourteen years old.”
“There was a lot of grass and it was a hot summer.” He scrolled through the ten emails that had dropped into his inbox during his call. “Much as I love reminiscing, I have a meeting in an hour and it’s probably going to take me an hour and a half to get there. Is everything okay? What can I do for you?”
“It’s more about what I can do for you.” She lowered her mug slowly. “I can help you.”
His sister was a born organizer—a skill, in his opinion. That was one of the reasons her business was guaranteed to be a success. The downside was her tendency to try and organize him along with everything else.
“I appreciate the thought, Paige, but I already have more business than I can handle.”
“I’m not talking about your business. I can’t help you with that. I can help with your love life.”
He already had his staff interfering with his love life. The last thing he needed was his sister’s input. “I don’t need help with my love life.”
“You’re wrong about that.”
“You think you know more about how to run my love life than I do?” Stupid question, he thought and saw her smile.
“I know I do.”
“Let me put this another way,” he said carefully. “What makes you think you have the right to interfere with my love life?”
“Maybe because you interfered with mine?”
He couldn’t argue with that.
“I thought that was water under the bridge. I seem to recall that I groveled for a humiliating length of time.”
“I didn’t find it humiliating. I found it satisfying. It’s not often that you admit you’re wrong.”
“It’s a family trait. And you have a cruel streak.”
“I’m your sister. It’s in the job description.”
“I’m starting to miss the time when you were too ill to argue with me. Look, I’m willing to take whatever is coming to me but you’ve chosen a bad moment to take revenge. I told you I have a meeting.”
“This isn’t about revenge. I really can help you. And you owe me. I fixed the babysitting problem for your Roxy.”
“She isn’t my Roxy, and I put you in touch with a great dog-walking business, so I figure that makes us even. And I can handle my own love life, Paige.” This time he wasn’t joking. “There’s nothing wrong with my judgment.”
“Are you sure? Because you proposed to Caroline.”
“Ouch.” Only a sibling would have thrown that in his face.
“It’s the truth, but don’t be too hard on yourself. You were blinded by blond hair and an impressive rack. The blood drained out of your brain and landed—well, we both know where it landed. That doesn’t matter now. She was completely wrong for you, everyone knew that, and you had the sense to end it. But when you find a woman who is perfect for you, it’s important not to mess it up.”
He knew what was driving this conversation. He’d seen it before, when Paige had been sick, when Eva had been bullied—the three women stuck together like Velcro.
“We’re talking about Frankie.”
“I’m glad to know there’s still some blood left in your brain.”
“I can handle it, Paige.”