Reunion Beach Elin Hilderbrand (best selling autobiographies .TXT) 📖

I steady myself as I try to come up with the best approach to take. Bram pours himself another glass of wine, which I note with concern. I didn’t need Nellie Bee to tell me that he drinks more when he’s stressed; I’ve witnessed it. We all do at times, but his tendency to drown his sorrows has caused him too many problems not to be worrisome. “Bram . . .” I begin cautiously, but he stops me.

“Don’t answer that. It was a rhetorical question.” His tone raises my hackles, but he goes on. “Listen, Chris; you and I have been together over five years. We’re doing fine without anyone’s interference.” Turning his laser-like eyes on me, he asks, “Don’t you agree?”

I lean over to put a hand on his arm. “Sweetheart, of course we are. We get along beautifully.”

He gives me a sideways glance. “I can be hard to live with, I know. I’m difficult and demanding and hot-headed—”

“As well as tender, loving, and thoughtful. We are all flawed, Bram. I can certainly be difficult, too.”

“You’re stubborn as hell,” he says, and I smile.

“You weren’t supposed to agree with me.” When he smiles a bit ruefully, I press on. “But I don’t agree that Nellie Bee’s overprotectiveness will affect our marriage.” Not above pulling the therapy card when need be, I add, “And you know I’m alert to such things in the families I work with. I’m very much aware how family interference can be a harmful factor in a marital relationship.”

“Oh, God,” he says. “How did I end up with someone who uses phrases like that?”

Grinning, I swat his arm. “Just your good fortune, I guess.”

The mood lightens, and his shoulders relax as he sits back to sip his wine. As tempting as it is to let his accusation against Nellie Bee go, it’s not wise to let it become a rift between us. Switching back to therapist mode, I echo what he said. “Am I hearing you correctly, that you feel Nellie Bee has a tendency to be overprotective and interfere in your life?”

He barks out a laugh. “Please tell me you didn’t just say that.”

“Bram!”

He looks at me with a mocking grin. “Yes, my dear Dr. Murray, you heard me correctly. My sister needs to give it a rest. I haven’t said anything before because you’re so fond of her, and . . . well . . . it hasn’t been necessary until now. But you need to know that Nellie Bee’s interference was a factor in the breakup of my marriage to Jocasta.”

“How so?”

Bram sighs, as if reluctant to say more. For a long minute I think he’s not going to, then he explains. “Nellie Bee disliked Jocasta from day one. Like I’ve told you, I met her when I was working in Charleston as a chef. Long before I got my own show. Jocasta was way out of my league, but somehow we hit it off and started dating. Mom and Da were still teaching at USC then; Nellie Bee was living with them to finish her master’s, so I took Jocasta to meet the family. I think Nellie Bee was intimidated by her, Jocasta coming from such a prominent old family. Whatever it was between them, it started then. Nellie Bee told our parents that Jocasta thought she was above our humble family. But Jocasta isn’t like that. It was just my sister’s insecurities coming out.”

I long to argue that, au contraire, I’d seen his snobbish ex-wife in action, but I let him have his say. “And what was Jocasta’s attitude toward Nellie Bee?”

“As you might imagine, she picked up on my sister’s dislike of her. They never got along. Which was regrettable to me since I loved them both. When I got my big break with the show, we bought the place on Fripp, and Jocasta and I started our family. Then Nellie Bee married Charlie and moved to Beaufort, where he had his law practice. Mikey was about six when the first real problems between Jocasta and me started. He was twelve when we split.”

He falls silent and I prod him to continue. “And you think Nellie Bee moving here gave her the opportunity to interfere in your marriage?”

“I know it did, Chris. Nothing my wife did found favor with my hyper-critical sister. But worse, she tried to turn me against Jocasta, too.”

“Oh? Tell me how.”

He fiddles with his wineglass, lost in thought. “I was traveling so much, and after we had Mikey, Jocasta no longer went along. Fripp can be a lonely place, and I understood when she and Mikey stayed with her parents in Charleston while I was away. Then Nellie Bee told me that Jocasta was seeing her old boyfriend—who her parents had wanted her to marry—when she was with them. Tongues were wagging all over South Carolina.”

I can’t let this go and say as gently as I can, knowing what a painful subject it is for him: “But sweetheart . . . you told me yourself that your marriage fell apart because your wife got involved with someone else. Surely you can’t blame your sister for that.”

“No. I blame myself. But Nellie Bee shares some blame, too. She set out to poison me against Jocasta by telling me about the old boyfriend, knowing I’d confront Jocasta about it. Which I did. I can be jealous, and we had frightful rows. Jocasta admitted seeing a lot of this guy when she was in Charleston, but swore it wasn’t serious. She was just lonely. I believed her, and we smoothed things over. Until Nellie Bee told Jocasta that I was seeing other women when I traveled—which I wasn’t, by the way—and Jocasta wasn’t as forgiving as I’d been. She’s jealous, too, and wouldn’t accept my denials. That’s when she took Michael, moved back in with her parents, and filed for divorce.”

I jump on the obvious flaw in his reasoning. “If you weren’t cheating on your wife, that means Nellie Bee lied, and for no reason except to cause trouble in your