Page 44 of Modern Persuasion

"Will I like Mary?" Seth asked.

"She can be very needy, but I think so," Louisa said without thinking long. "Follow Emma's lead because she knows how to deal with her sister. If Emma ignores Mary, then you can too. Never leave Mary out of anything. Plus, my nephews are all types of adorable, but we call them Thing One and Thing Two for a reason. It's total Cat in the Hat chaos with them. They love Emma and me, but they live to torment Elizabeth. You may have to pull them off someone at some point in time. When all else fails, they adore playing on the beach."

"I have made mental notes," Seth said with a smile.

"Plus, Tommy is clearly their father. He is an adult version of them. When I was a baby, I thought his name was monster for the first few years of my life."

"It's true," Mr. Musgrove said without looking up from a book he was reading.

"It's going to be a fun trip, trust me. Ignore snobby behavior, enjoy the food, and play with the kids," Mrs. Musgrove said with a smile.

"I'm sure Emma will be in a much better mood too. She was acting totally weird on the book tour," Louisa said.

"I'm sure she was just exhausted," Seth said, looking at me again.

Tommy was already at the grill when we arrived. He had hotdogs on for his sons, who were precisely as Louisa had told us to expect. They were in the pool with Mary when we got to the house. I think she put so many floaty things on them to immobilize them. Once they were out of the water and on dry land, they were like two pint-size Tasmanian devils.

"Just let them go," Mary said with a sigh as they ran into the house. "They have a whole basement full of toys."

I was talking to Tommy when I saw Emma arrive. As soon as she saw me, she turned around and went back into the house. I could read the panic on her face, even at a distance.

"Well," Seth said, "Louisa was wrong about her being more relaxed."

Seth and I went into the house. In the hour we had been there, he was already comfortable with his future in-laws. They adored him too.

"Where did Emma go? I want to say hi," Seth asked Mrs. Musgrove.

The older woman was standing at the kitchen island, chopping tomatoes and onions for dinner.

"Oh, I suspect down to the basement," the older woman said, wiping her hands on a towel. "Elizabeth, where did your sister go?"

"I am not her keeper. To the moon?" said the other woman in the room.

Elizabeth Shaw looked like Emma, but wrong. Her smile was a sneer, her eyes seemed almost malicious, and she carried herself as if she was better than everyone else. I watched as she poured a glass of wine for herself and failed to offer some to Mrs. Musgrove even though the older woman had an empty glass next to her. Elizabeth just walked out of the kitchen and into the world without caring.

"Nope," Seth said. "She clearly does not realize her shit stinks just as much as everyone's."

Mrs. Musgrove just sighed and shook her head with clear disapproval.

"Try the basement. Emma and those boys are the best of friends," Mrs. Musgrove said before focusing on her prep again.

We found Emma on the floor playing with trucks. I was overcome with emotion as I watched her lay on her stomach and push the trucks around on the floor. I listened to her make motor and siren noises. This should be our life. The two toddler boys looked up and went back to playing. While they may not have reacted to us, our presence changed how one of them played with Emma. He quickly became clingy. He was climbing all over her, and no matter how much she protested, she could not get him off. I felt a new instinct kick in. I have never thought I'm good with kids, but for one moment, I wondered how I would react if these were our children. What if these were our sons annoying his mother? I got up and pulled the boy off Emma.

"Let your aunt take a break. Let's go play on the beach!" I said to him.

Both boys perked up at the idea of playing on the beach. The boy jumped out of my arms and ran out of the room with his brother right behind him. Seth following them, I stayed and helped Emma get up. As she took my hand, I fought the urge to pull her into my arms.

"Thank you," she said.

"My pleasure. All boys have their own way of showing they love you," I said before walking out of the room.

Dinner was more illuminating than it should have been. Even though Seth's official proposal to Louisa was a welcome and happy moment in dinner, I was more interested in two things going on around Emma. I didn't care for Dave. I disliked him when he was flirting with her, but it was what happened at dinner that made me decide I hated him. Even though Dave flirted with Emma, he sat next to Elizabeth at dinner. Periodically, Elizabeth would get up from the table, get a new beer bottle, and sit back down. Then she switched her fresh bottle with Emma's nearly empty bottle. Emma had no idea her older sister was doing this, and Dave said nothing to stop Elizabeth even though he saw the entire thing. He and Elizabeth actually mocked Emma the drunker she got. When I got up to get myself some water, I met Mary by the cooler.

"What is Elizabeth doing to Emma?" I asked Mary.

"I don't know. What is she doing?"

I told Mary what I had seen.