Mason groaned, closing his eyes and grimacing. "Just don't let it show in any new color schemes you might be dreaming up," he advised. "Happiness is one thing. Frothy pink walls is another."
"No pink," she promised. "But what exactly am I going to do? I don't really have time for an overhaul before Aunt Doris gets here."
Mason shrugged, leaning against the couch. He had an inborn facility for relaxing that reminded Charity of a cat. Mason could fall asleep anywhere, and if she didn't watch out, he'd do it now.
"Come on," she urged, nudging him with her foot. "After all, you're the one who got me into this predicament."
He raised both hands in the air, palms open. "Mea culpa," he acknowledged. "I did make up that story about you being happily married. But I never dreamed the dear old girl would make a run out here to see for herself."
"Neither did I, or I would have told her the truth from the start." Charity sighed. "But once you'd told her, it seemed so harmless to just let the story stick...."
"You should have contradicted me right away," Mason said with innocent aplomb that made Charity want to hit him with a pillow. "Everybody knows what a flake I am. She wouldn't have thought twice." His grin was wicked. "But once you'd acquiesced, the tale might as well have been written in stone."
Charity kicked him a little harder. "I don't know what you thought you could gain by such a ridiculous story, anyway," she grumbled.
"I didn't do it for me. It was for her."
"Oh, really?" Charity picked up her glass of iced tea and took a long sip, her dark eyes examining her brother's face. He'd always been good-looking, but now there was something else in his face that disturbed her-a look of weary bitterness around the eyes, a line of sadness around the mouth.
Mason was a dilettante, a playboy, a drifter. And that was all he would ever be. She ought to accept that and stop caring, but she couldn't. She loved him.
"Convince me."
He shrugged his shoulders. "You know what she's like. She can't believe we all turned out the way we did."
Charity's laugh was short and had a bitter edge. She couldn't believe it, either, even though she'd seen the direction from the beginning. "I don't know why it should be a big surprise to her. After all, with parents like we had-"
"That's just it." He smiled ruefully at his sister. They had always been close and they had a shorthand way of talking to each other that could shut out others if they didn't watch it. A wink, an elbow jab, could speak vol umes and make words almost unnecessary.