Kai smiled. “I am not offended. Are you offended, Rob? Your brother isn’t in love with me.”

Rob winked at Angie. “I always had better taste. And anyway, that’s the story where the sister is too weak to stand up for her husband when he needs her most. Obviously not me and Kai. So you’re free and clear, John, you can’t be Harvey.”

“Great. Now can we change the subject?” John asked.

Kai said, “I have a question,” and the knot in John’s gut pulled tighter. But then there was no harm in Kai and a great deal of kindness, and he liked her for her own sake as much as for Rob’s.

He said, “You always do, darlin’. What is it?”

“I would like to know why your relationship with Angie failed.”

He heard himself draw in a sharp breath. Angie blinked in surprise.

“And here I was just thinking what a good sister-in-law you’ve been to me. Sorry, but I can’t answer that question.”

Kai’s gaze shifted to Angie and he added: “And neither can Angeline.”

“I can’t?” said Angie.

“You choose not to.”

“I do?”

“Here we go,” said Rob, reaching for more coffee.

Angie put down her cup and crossed her arms so that her hands rested on her shoulders, and she gave him a long, considering look. “I’d like to hear what you have to say about this, Harvey.”

“Oh, good,” said Kai cheerfully. “I also.”

“Me, too,” said Rob.

“You see?” said Kai. “We all want to hear.”

“Rob was correcting your English,” said John. “‘Me too’ instead of ‘I also.’ He was giving you the more colloquial usage.”

“No I wasn’t,” Rob said. “I do want to hear.”

John took a breath, looked from Kai’s intense expression to Rob’s amused one, weighed the possibility of further evasion, and gave in. “Our relationship ended because Angie felt our goals and priorities were too different.”

“Now see,” Angie said, “I’d say it had more to do with the fact that I dyed my hair blue to go meet your grandfather Grant.”

John studied the crumbs on his plate before he let himself look up. “The color of your hair was—is—irrelevant. That was just your way of forcing a confrontation.”

To Kai, Angie said, “I just didn’t fit in. His grandfather Grant hated me.”

“But I didn’t.” John said it clearly and saw Angie jerk, ever so slightly. Which gave him more satisfaction than he deserved, or could explain to himself.

Rob said, “In all fairness, Angie, the old man hated just about everybody, our mother included.”

“How is Lucy?” Angie asked John. She had met John’s mother only once, but it had been memorable.

“Fine. She’s fine.” He shot Rob a sharp look, but Kai missed the significance of that. She said, “She is remarried. Again.”

“Really?” Angie said. “How many times is that?”