Would you maybe want to do something like high school sweethearts? He is around the same age as hed brother so they could have met that way? She also ended up in New York for a couple years (she moved there with her husband but the marriage didn't last). So now she's home. Maybe it can be a running joke that she's following him! She's not in the best place right now emotionally and is kind of hiding out from her family instead of facing them and telling them she's a bitter divorcee but maybe she has reached out to him? For old times sake or whatever!