“You broke up with her? All these years you let me think she was the one who broke up with you, and it was the other way around, wasn’t it?” She desperately wanted him to deny it, but he simply watched her and she wanted to groan and give herself a shake for not seeing the truth. “All these years I’ve been wondering what I’d done, and it turns out that I hadn’t done anything—it was all you!” She was shaking with anger. “Why didn’t you talk to me about it? Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“Because it was my relationship. My business. Joanna’s business. And you need to calm down. You’re upsetting Bess—” He stooped, stroked and reassured the dog. “It’s all right, girl. Your auntie Mel is angry, but you don’t need to defend me.”

“The way I feel right now, she may need to defend you. And normally I’d agree with you that your relationships are your business, but not on this occasion. Your relationship with Joanna was very much my business because she was my best friend, too. If I’d known the truth, I could have supported her but she pushed me away and I let her because I was so conflicted about the whole thing. I couldn’t figure out how I could be friends with her, when she’d hurt you so badly. How could I sit and listen to her talking about you? It was complicated! But if I’d known the truth, it would have been straightforward. I would have been there for her.”

Nate straightened. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“But I want to, and you owe it to me. Why, Nate?”

Bess whined and he put his hand on her head.

“Why? Because I was eighteen and didn’t know how to handle things.” He glanced at something over her shoulder and Mel turned to see what had attracted his attention.

Greg stood there and she scowled. “I said fifteen minutes.”

“They can hear you down on the beach, Mel. Possibly up in San Francisco if the wind is blowing in the right direction. You might want to take it down a notch.” He sighed. “Ending a relationship is not a crime.”

“No. But letting me throw my friendship under a bus because of it definitely should be. And you should stay out of this,” Mel advised. “This is a twin thing.”

“Actually, this is between Nate and Joanna,” Greg said. “This isn’t your problem, Mel.”