Free Retreat to Love by Melanie Greene Page A

I’ve talked to him about my own situations. And he’s never brought up the break-up with Eva, not since he told me what had happened.
    “I know all the things to say, Ash. I’ll meet someone else. It’ll be magic. I’ll forget anyone like Eva ever existed. We’ll be so good together it’ll make my life whole in a way she never could have.” He looked at me then, and smiled a little. “And when all that happens, I’ll be happy.”
    “You don’t think it will?”
    “No, I do. Some day. Hell, tomorrow would be good. I’m open for it.”
    “Well, I love you.”
    He let me hug on him a while. “I love you, too, sis.” Pulling back, he added, “And if it were Game of Thrones we could go with that and live happily ever after. Well, not happily ever after. Those guys are fucked up. So it’s a bad idea.”
    “Good thing. Cause I hate to burst your bubble and all, but you’re so not my type.”
    He laughed, finally. “What? You crazy? Look at me, I’m downright perfect.”
    “You’re a little skinny.”
    “I’m just healthy. Check out these muscles.”
    “And you’re definitely a nerd.”
    “But a well-off one.”
    “And above all, that mom of yours near bout scares me to death. That is one lady I do not want as a mother-in-law.”
    “Now, that I can agree with.” Yawning, he stood. “I should hit the road, gotta actually go in for a lunch meeting tomorrow.”
    “Poor guy. I gotta get up in about five hours to cook muffins for eight grumpy artists.”
    “When I get home, before I go to sleep, I’ll cry a river of tears for you.”
    “Thanks.” We hugged at the door. “And thanks for coming down and all. Now get the hell out of here.”
    He headed out into the blackness, his headlights bobbing across the crushed white of the dozed-out road. I sighed. My brother, whisking through the darkness to his hip little stone house in Austin; he’d bought a three-bedroom in anticipation of needing both a study and a nursery some day. I had a key so I could crash in the guest room at a moment’s notice, and only four or five times had he asked me to stay away because there’d be someone else there in the morning eating his signature huevos rancheros. I was all about the free accommodations, but for his sake, hoped he would find the woman to make him forget the Evas out there can take all your love and trust and turn it around until you are afraid to give it to anyone else again.
    Maybe someday.
    Maybe tomorrow.
    I closed the door and closed my eyes, sending happy ever after thoughts into the ether for my too-alone brother.
     

Chapter 5
     
    The alarm clock dragged me up through a confusing swathe of fuzzy dream-chatting with a 21 st Century Martha Washington. It was 6:30; Caleb insisted I be by his side in the kitchen by seven. He pfft ed at my pointing out it takes only minutes to prepare cereal in a bowl of soy milk. 
    In deference to my headache, I kept my grumblings quiet as I drenched myself in the shower. I had to wash my face three times to get the sleep rocks out of my eyes and the smell of my asparagus-soup tainted pee out of my nose. It was the kind of morning I most cherished my collection of oversized sweatshirts. I felt almost like myself when I stepped onto the porch of the Main House.
    “Hey, sleepyhead,” Caleb said over his shoulder as he rinsed potatoes in the sink.
    “How long have you been up?”
    “An hour, I guess. Zach got home okay?”
    “I suppose. He’d sobered up before he left, and he’s used to being up until the early hours, so there’s no reason why not.”
    “Here, grate these,” he said, passing me a chopping board loaded with peeled spuds. “We’re making latkes this morning.”
    I looked around. “Isn’t there a food processor or something?”
    “It makes it too fine. Latkes need texture. Use the coarse end.” He gathered up all the scraps of peel. “Have you seen a compost?”
    I shook my head no. “Haven’t looked. She shoulda mentioned it on the