Beth fiddled with her spoon. “He was the guy in the photo?”
“Yes.”
“Why does he call you ‘dancing pizza girl’?” Posy ignored Beth’s look of surprise.
“Sometimes we work late and he orders pizza and, yes, there may have been the odd occasion when I may have eaten a slice. And once, we were messing around and he taught me to tango.”
Her sister messed around? She knew how to dance a tango?
Beth blinked. “Are you in love?”
“I’m not in love.” Hannah stared into the fire. “I don’t have those feelings.”
“If he got you dancing round a pizza box, you’re definitely feeling something.” Posy looked at Beth. “By the way, I blame you. Why didn’t you tell us she was seeing someone?”
“Because I didn’t know. She makes excuses rather than meet up, presumably because I’m boring.”
Hannah frowned. “You’re not boring.”
“I am boring. All I talk about is the kids.”
“Because you love them, and you’re proud of them. And why wouldn’t you be? You’re a great mom, Beth. I don’t see the problem.”
“The problem is that you don’t like them.”
Posy froze. Oops. Beth had said the same thing that night in the car on their way from the airport, but Posy had assumed it was because she’d overindulged on the champagne.
Hannah looked astonished. “That is ridiculous.”
“You never come to the apartment. You make excuses so that you don’t have to meet up, and when we do, you insist on meeting in restaurants. I try not to be hurt because I know kids aren’t your thing, but they’re your nieces and the truth is you find them difficult to be around.”
Posy had an uneasy feeling their sisterly bonding moment might have tipped over the edge into something infinitely more dangerous.
“Maybe we should—”
“That isn’t true.” Hannah was pale.
“You don’t avoid coming to my apartment?”
“That part might be true, but it isn’t because I don’t love the girls. I can’t believe you’d think that.”
“You left them alone this afternoon.”
“That’s because I’m inept, not because I don’t love them.”
There was something about Hannah’s unflinching honesty that made Posy’s heart ache, but she also felt for Beth because she knew this was a sensitive issue for her.
“Do you think we could go back to—”
“No,” Beth said. “If we’re having a sister night where we’re all honest, then we’re going to be honest.”
“We weren’t really having a sister night,” Posy said. “Mom threw us out, and—”
“It’s turned into a sister night. And this has been on my mind for a while, so I’d like to talk about it if that’s all right with you. Tell me the truth, Hannah.”
Posy wondered whether she should try to shut this down. Seeing her sisters hurting was harder to handle
than the situation with Luke.