“I can’t believe it’s taken him so long.” At Eve’s expression, Gabriella lifted a hand in a negligent wave. “After all, Eve, Alex may be an idiot, but he’s far from stupid. It’s difficult for me to believe you were shocked.”

“I was shocked.” Then with a grimace Eve relented. “All right, maybe I wasn’t shocked, but I was surprised.”

“Did you kiss him back?”

If the “him” had been anyone else, she would have laughed. “Really, Brie, that’s hardly the point.”

“No, it is the point, but it’s also none of my business.”

“I didn’t mean that.”

“If you didn’t, you should have,” Gabriella told her as she sampled her coffee. “Still, if you’re angry with Alex, I think there’s more to it than a kiss.”

She tried to sit, then stood again to roam the room. Nothing seemed right, she thought. Nothing fit into place. “He only kissed me because of Bennett.”

While Eve paced the room, Gabriella set her coffee down again. “I hate being dense, but what does Bennett have to do with Alex and you?”

“Just like a man,” Eve muttered as she walked back and forth. Her oversized shirt flapped at the hips with each movement. She’d told herself she wasn’t going to give it another thought. She’d promised herself that if she did think of it, she wouldn’t be upset. So much for promises. She gestured with her cup and nearly sloshed coffee over the sides. “Like a little boy wanting a shiny red ball because it belongs to another little boy. Well, I’m not a red ball.” She slammed her cup into its saucer. “I don’t belong to anyone.”

Gabriella let the silence hang a moment, then slowly nodded. “I think I’m following you. Stop me if I’m wrong. You think Alex tried to seduce you because he thinks Bennett already has.”

“Bingo.”

“Eve, that’s absurd.”

“You bet it is. I said the same thing in more graphic terms to Alexander.”

“No, no, no.” More than a little amused, Gabriella laughed off Eve’s indignant agreement. “I meant it’s absurd to think that Alex and Ben have ever played one-upmanship over anything. It simply isn’t in their nature.”

It wasn’t the sympathy she’d counted on. Families stick together, she reminded herself, but Gabriella was a woman. She wanted a woman’s reaction. “How do you explain the fact that he said I’d slept with Ben?”

“Alex said that?”

“Yes, he said it. Do you think I imagined it?”

Amusement became a shadow of concern. “No, of course not. I thought you’d misunderstood something he did or said.” The concern hovered a moment, then faded. “I still do.”

“It was very plain, Brie. Alex thinks Ben and I …” She left the obvious unstated as she thought it through. “Maybe everyone does.”