Summer on Sunshine Bay, page 7
“Zio James,” she said, leaning in to kiss his cheek, hitting him in the face with the duck she’d obviously forgotten she was wearing.
After talking to Heather, Eva felt like hitting him too, only he wouldn’t be smiling. It annoyed her that she found his smile as attractive as ever and that her niece still insisted on calling him Uncle James. Sage was the same.
Eva had tried to break them of the habit over the years, but it didn’t work. Not surprising, she supposed. Whenever James had come to see Lila—their visits had taken place in Sunshine Bay until she was twelve—he’d arrive bearing gifts, and he’d always brought something for Sage and Willow too. He’d spoiled the three of them, especially at Christmas, shipping over boxes of presents. Whenever money was tight—which, to be honest, was most of the time—Eva and Gia would mark half of them as being from Santa.
“Sorry about that.” Willow laughed and removed the duck from her waist. She leaned in and hugged James. “It’s nice to see you.”
“Obviously when Lila invoked the Cousins Pact, she didn’t share that her father owns Windemere,” Eva said, pulling out the chair between her daughter and Gia.
James frowned. “I what?”
Suddenly weary and deflated, Eva dropped onto the chair. “Oh, please, don’t try and deny it, James.”
“Eva, I have nothing to do with Windemere.”
His deep voice with his sexy British accent had always done it for her, in bed and out. It was annoying that it still had the power to make her toes curl. “I don’t bel—”
“Mom, it’s true. David’s father owns controlling interest in Windemere.” Lila ducked her head and took a sip of her ginger ale.
“Your colleague from London?” Eva asked, looking from Lila to James when he slid a protective arm around their daughter.
“David’s more than a colleague, Mom.” Her daughter’s voice dropped, and she mumbled, “He’s my fiancé.”
“Sorry, I must have misunderstood. I thought you said he’s your fiancé.” At the looks on her sister’s and niece’s faces, Eva’s laugh sputtered and died in her throat. “Tell me you did not just say you’re engaged to that boy, Lila Marie Rosetti.”
“Lila Marie Rosetti Sinclair,” James said, his glacial blue eyes holding Eva’s gaze, warning her in his not-so-subtle way to tread carefully.
Her sister did the same—only she lightly pinched Eva’s thigh instead of staring her down.
“This is exactly why I put off telling you, Mom. I knew how you’d react. How all of you’d react,” she said with a sweeping gesture around the table.
“Don’t include me, sweetheart. I’m happy for you. David’s a good—”
“Did you expect us to cheer, to be happy for you, Lila?” Eva asked, cutting off James. “We love you, and the last thing we want is for you to be hurt, and that’s exactly what will happen if you go through with this. You know our family’s history.” She reached for her daughter’s hand, ignoring the twinge of hurt when Lila pulled it away. “We are—”
“I don’t believe in the Rosetti curse, and even if I did, I wouldn’t let some silly superstition dictate my choices in life.”
Eva turned to her sister. “Do you hear that, G? Your niece believes the curse is nothing more than a silly superstition. Perhaps you want to enlighten her.”
“I’m sorry, Zia. I’m not trying to belittle your suffering or Nonna’s or any of the Rosetti women’s,” Lila said, and then she looked at Eva with an obstinate lift of her chin.
Lila might look like her father, but she’d inherited her grandmother’s stubbornness.
“But I’m marrying David, and nothing you can say will change my mind. I love you, and I want you to be part of my wedding, but if you can’t support me and be happy for me…” She trailed off with a shrug as if it didn’t matter to her, but Eva saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes.
“Oh, darling, of course we’ll support you. There’s nothing we want more than your happiness, and if you believe marrying David will make you happy, then who are we to stand in your way?” Eva smiled, and James’s eyes narrowed while around the table her daughter, sister, and niece blinked.
They had good reason to doubt her. She wasn’t about to let this David and his marriage proposal tear her and Lila apart by objecting to the wedding, but neither was she about to let her daughter make the biggest mistake of her life. Eva just needed time to convince Lila that marrying David would bring her nothing but heartache.
She pushed back from the table and stood up. “This calls for a celebration. I’ll get the champagne.”
Chapter Seven
Gia looked at Eva as if she’d lost her mind. No doubt her sister had been waiting for Eva to list all the reasons why Lila was making the biggest mistake of her life and then forbid her from going through with the wedding, threatening that if she did, she’d wash her hands of her. It’s what their mother had done when Gia told them she was getting married, and it had nearly torn their family apart.
When her sister opened her mouth, Eva told her in rapid-fire Italian—their daughters had never learned the language—that she was just buying time without alienating Lila, but one way or another, they’d stop the wedding.
Her sister’s shoulders lowered from around her ears. “That’s a good plan.” Gia winced, realizing she’d spoken in English, and tried to cover her slip. “Brand. That’s a good brand of champagne.”
Eva had a feeling that Gia hadn’t been quick enough to cover her slip when James stood up. “I’ll give you a hand.”
Eva waved him off. “Thank you, but it’s not necessary.”
“I insist,” he said, his long-legged stride eating the short distance between them. He leaned in to her as they walked toward the bar. “Whatever you’re planning, forget about it.”
She shivered in reaction to his warm breath caressing her ear. It was annoying how easily she responded to him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He repeated what she’d said to her sister…in Italian.
“I have no idea what you just said. Your accent is atrocious.” It wasn’t. It was perfect.
His lips lifted at the corner. “I have it on good authority that my accent is flawless.”
“How old was she?” The words were out of her mouth before she realized how inappropriate they were, and she briefly closed her eyes. She reached out an apologetic hand and touched his arm. “I’m sorry, James. That was a thoughtless thing to say.”
He shrugged off her apology. “I’m used to your sense of humor, Eva.”
“I know, but I shouldn’t tease you. It hasn’t been that long since you lost Grace.”
His wife had been an elegant blond beauty, the exact antithesis of Eva. She’d had a soft, cultured voice that Lila swore she never raised. There’d been a time when Eva had resented the woman who was a paragon of virtue in her daughter’s eyes, but over the years, her feelings about Grace had changed.
As a mother herself, Grace had been understanding and sympathetic to Eva’s worries about Lila living far from home, unlike James, who’d thought she was overreacting and being neurotic. It wasn’t long before Eva was corresponding with Grace instead of James, and Eva liked to think they’d become friends.
“It’s been over two years,” James said, the clipped tone of his voice clearly indicating that he didn’t want to talk about it.
The sharpness in his voice didn’t hurt or offend her as it had when they were together that long-ago summer. She was older and wiser and understood that his ironclad control over his emotions had more to do with him than with her. James didn’t cope well with messy feelings and drama.
He glanced at her. “I know how you and your family feel about marriage, Eva, and I know you’re just trying to protect Lila from being hurt. But she’s not a little girl anymore. She’s a strong, independent woman who knows what she wants.”
“And you think she wants to marry this man, this David?” Eva looked over her shoulder at her daughter, who was talking to Gia and Willow. The conversation didn’t appear to be a happy one. “She doesn’t look like a blushing bride-to-be to me. Does she to you?”
“She was upset you saw her at Windemere, and of course she was nervous about telling you.” He looked away, shoving his fingers through his hair.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
He lowered his hand and took her by the elbow, steering her toward a table for two where they were out of their daughter’s view. “You’ll hear about it soon enough, and maybe it’s better you hear it from me first.” He pulled out the chair for her. “Do you want something to drink?”
“Am I going to need it?” she asked as she lowered herself onto the chair.
He nodded. “Yeah, and I could use one too. I’ll get it,” he said when she started to get up from the chair.
Heather intercepted him as he turned to leave. She had a bottle of wine tucked under her arm and five glasses in her hands. “Sorry, Eva. I got tied up with the frat boys. They wanted Boston sours, and I had to look it up.”
Eva usually worked the bar, but she kept a laminated list of the ingredients for cocktails taped to the counter. One of their servers acted as her backup, and she was on tonight. “Where’s Sam?”
“She, uh, left early.”
Eva had a feeling Sam was one of the servers who’d applied at Windemere. She was one of Eva’s more recent hires. “You should’ve called me.”
“It was fine, really.” Heather glanced from Eva to the family table. “Do you want me to leave this with you or bring—” She broke off when Gia hurried over.
“Thanks, Heather.” Her sister retrieved the bottle and two wineglasses and set them in front of Eva. “When you have a minute… Never mind, I’ll get it myself,” Gia said to Heather, and then looked at James, who’d taken the seat across from Eva. “You’re going to tell her?” It was more an order than a question.
He nodded.
“Good.” Gia gave Eva’s shoulder what she must’ve meant to be a reassuring squeeze but that was anything but, given the expression on her sister’s face.
“What is it?”
Her sister smiled, but the look in her eyes said you’re going to lose your mind. “Lila was sharing her wedding plans with us.” Gia glanced at the bottle of wine. “You might need something stronger.”
James’s broad shoulders rose on a sigh. “I know I will.”
Gia nodded and followed Heather back to the bar.
“So you and Lila have already discussed wedding plans without me,” Eva said as she poured herself a glass of wine, hurt by the thought, despite knowing it was an irrational reaction.
Of course, given her stance on marriage, they would’ve gone ahead with the plans without her. She just hoped they weren’t too far along in the planning stage. She needed time to change her daughter’s mind.
“Okay, don’t act like the wounded party. The last thing Lila would expect is that you’d want to help plan her wedding, Eva.”
“What mother wouldn’t want to be involved in her daughter’s wedding, James?”
“You,” he said dryly. He glanced at Gia when she plunked a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and an old-fashioned glass in front of him.
“Good luck,” her sister murmured, and then she headed for the family table with a tray of champagne flutes and a bottle of champagne.
“Look, Eva, Lila didn’t want a big wedding. She’d planned to get married at the courthouse.”
She caught a whiff of caramel as he poured the whiskey into his glass.
“But David’s mother was understandably excited about her son getting married, and, well…she got a little carried away.”
A simple wedding at the courthouse might’ve been harder for Eva to interfere with, so she was almost relieved to hear that David’s mother had other plans. “Exactly how carried away did she get?”
“She’s invited three hundred guests for a weekend-long wedding at…” He took a long swallow of his whiskey before continuing, “In Sunshine Bay.”
“Funny, I don’t remember getting our invitation.” Eva drummed her fingers on the table. A weekend-long wedding was ideal—so many opportunities for things to go wrong. But Eva planned to have the wedding called off long before then. “I suppose she was waiting for our guest list. It’ll take some time to put it together, but I’m sure there’s no rush.”
James narrowed his eyes as if suspicious of her mild reaction. “The wedding is a month from now.”
“Excuse me?” Her voice went up into screechy territory, which actually seemed to alleviate James’s suspicions. But it did little to alleviate her panic. She had only a matter of weeks to change Lila’s mind.
James nodded, took another long swallow of his drink, and then cleared his throat. “Don’t get upset. I’m working on this, but they’re planning on holding the wedding at Windemere.”
She was staring at him—stunned—when an all-too-familiar heated flush worked its way from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. This couldn’t be happening now. She grabbed the menu off the table, frantically fanning herself to keep the sweat at bay. “Who does this woman”—a droplet rolled down her nose and onto the table. Fan, fan, fan—“think she is?”
Madonna santo, now the sweat was pouring off her, and James was staring at her with an alarmed expression on his face. “Are you having a heart attack?” he asked, rising from his chair as if to call someone over.
She tugged on his sleeve to get him to sit down. “Don’t make a scene,” she said, and it struck her as funny because the last person to make a scene was Mr. Calm and Coolly Collected. Or it would’ve struck her as funny if she weren’t melting in a puddle of sweat. “I’m not having a heart attack. I’m having a…hot flash.”
“You had me worried for a minute,” he said, getting up from the table.
At that point Eva was too busy mopping at her brow and chest with a napkin to ask where he was going. He returned with two bar towels and a bucket of ice. He filled one of the towels with ice and then draped it around the back of her neck. Then he dipped the other towel in the bucket of ice and water, wrung it out, took the menu from her hand, gave her the damp towel, and began fanning her himself.
She moaned her appreciation. “How did you know to do that?”
“Grace. She went into early menopause after the surgery.”
“Bless her, and I don’t mean that in a southern way. Getting older—” She bowed her head. Grace would’ve given anything to grow older, and here Eva was complaining about it.
“I have high blood pressure,” he admitted, graciously letting her remark slide.
“Lila told me. She was worried about you, and so were her sisters.”
“They acted like I had one foot in the grave.”
After losing Grace, Eva imagined the girls had been terrified they’d lose their father too. “Is that why you sold your company?”
“Yes and no. After Grace died, my priorities changed. I took a good, long look at my life and didn’t like what I saw. I wasn’t living my life so much as going through the motions.” He angled his glass at her. “I can’t believe you thought I bought Windemere.”
“It was the only reason I could think of for you being there. You and Lila.” She removed the towel. The ice was melting and dripping down her back, and her hot flash had passed.
“Jennifer called and shared their plans. She wanted me here to surprise Lila.” At Eva’s raised brow, he said, “Yes. I know how much our daughter hates surprises, but I figured she could use the support.”
“Because I was going to go off the deep end?”
“You and the rest of your family. And the fact that you’re not can mean only one thing, so I’m going to warn you right now, I won’t let you ruin this for Lila.”
And they’d been having such a nice conversation up until then. She should’ve known it wouldn’t last. “I’ve just learned that my daughter has been secretly engaged for months and is having an extravagant weekend-long wedding at the resort that is in all likelihood going to put us out of business, so forgive me if I’m not reacting how you expected, James. I’m in shock.”
“You’re right. Sorry. And I hate to pile it on, but you should know that Gavin, David’s father, asked him to manage Windemere, and David accepted. They’re using the wedding to boost Windemere’s profile.”
“And Lila was okay with this? Okay with marrying a man who will be responsible for putting her family out of business?”
“Of course she wasn’t,” he said, sharing Lila’s reaction to the news with her. “But what was she supposed to do, Eva? David needs a job, and I’m sure he’s used the added inducement that they’ll be living in Sunshine Bay.”
Eva didn’t know how she was going to break the news to her mother. “Did they offer Lila a job too?”
“No, and you know she wouldn’t take it if they did.” He looked around the restaurant. “How big of a hit have you taken?”
“Too big to sustain for long. If we don’t turn our numbers around, we’ll have to close at the end of the season.”
“I told the Westfields that since I’m paying for the wedding, and Lila is the bride, that she should have some say, and at least some of the wedding festivities should be held here. Gavin wasn’t impressed, and I’m afraid I hurt Jennifer’s feelings. I may have been somewhat abrupt, but in my defense, I’d just watched our daughter run off looking like she was going to throw up.”
“My poor baby. I don’t know how you can support this wedding after what you’ve just told me.”
He shrugged. “I’m not the one marrying into the family, Lila is. She’s smart and cautious. She doesn’t jump into anything without thinking it through. The only reason she’d get married is if she wanted to.”
He was right. Lila didn’t make a decision without going through a long list of pros and cons. And Eva knew from experience that no one could convince her daughter to do something she didn’t want to do. But after everything Eva had heard about David and his family and her daughter’s reaction to the wedding plans, she was more determined than ever to sabotage the wedding. She’d just have to proceed carefully, especially with James around.
After talking to Heather, Eva felt like hitting him too, only he wouldn’t be smiling. It annoyed her that she found his smile as attractive as ever and that her niece still insisted on calling him Uncle James. Sage was the same.
Eva had tried to break them of the habit over the years, but it didn’t work. Not surprising, she supposed. Whenever James had come to see Lila—their visits had taken place in Sunshine Bay until she was twelve—he’d arrive bearing gifts, and he’d always brought something for Sage and Willow too. He’d spoiled the three of them, especially at Christmas, shipping over boxes of presents. Whenever money was tight—which, to be honest, was most of the time—Eva and Gia would mark half of them as being from Santa.
“Sorry about that.” Willow laughed and removed the duck from her waist. She leaned in and hugged James. “It’s nice to see you.”
“Obviously when Lila invoked the Cousins Pact, she didn’t share that her father owns Windemere,” Eva said, pulling out the chair between her daughter and Gia.
James frowned. “I what?”
Suddenly weary and deflated, Eva dropped onto the chair. “Oh, please, don’t try and deny it, James.”
“Eva, I have nothing to do with Windemere.”
His deep voice with his sexy British accent had always done it for her, in bed and out. It was annoying that it still had the power to make her toes curl. “I don’t bel—”
“Mom, it’s true. David’s father owns controlling interest in Windemere.” Lila ducked her head and took a sip of her ginger ale.
“Your colleague from London?” Eva asked, looking from Lila to James when he slid a protective arm around their daughter.
“David’s more than a colleague, Mom.” Her daughter’s voice dropped, and she mumbled, “He’s my fiancé.”
“Sorry, I must have misunderstood. I thought you said he’s your fiancé.” At the looks on her sister’s and niece’s faces, Eva’s laugh sputtered and died in her throat. “Tell me you did not just say you’re engaged to that boy, Lila Marie Rosetti.”
“Lila Marie Rosetti Sinclair,” James said, his glacial blue eyes holding Eva’s gaze, warning her in his not-so-subtle way to tread carefully.
Her sister did the same—only she lightly pinched Eva’s thigh instead of staring her down.
“This is exactly why I put off telling you, Mom. I knew how you’d react. How all of you’d react,” she said with a sweeping gesture around the table.
“Don’t include me, sweetheart. I’m happy for you. David’s a good—”
“Did you expect us to cheer, to be happy for you, Lila?” Eva asked, cutting off James. “We love you, and the last thing we want is for you to be hurt, and that’s exactly what will happen if you go through with this. You know our family’s history.” She reached for her daughter’s hand, ignoring the twinge of hurt when Lila pulled it away. “We are—”
“I don’t believe in the Rosetti curse, and even if I did, I wouldn’t let some silly superstition dictate my choices in life.”
Eva turned to her sister. “Do you hear that, G? Your niece believes the curse is nothing more than a silly superstition. Perhaps you want to enlighten her.”
“I’m sorry, Zia. I’m not trying to belittle your suffering or Nonna’s or any of the Rosetti women’s,” Lila said, and then she looked at Eva with an obstinate lift of her chin.
Lila might look like her father, but she’d inherited her grandmother’s stubbornness.
“But I’m marrying David, and nothing you can say will change my mind. I love you, and I want you to be part of my wedding, but if you can’t support me and be happy for me…” She trailed off with a shrug as if it didn’t matter to her, but Eva saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes.
“Oh, darling, of course we’ll support you. There’s nothing we want more than your happiness, and if you believe marrying David will make you happy, then who are we to stand in your way?” Eva smiled, and James’s eyes narrowed while around the table her daughter, sister, and niece blinked.
They had good reason to doubt her. She wasn’t about to let this David and his marriage proposal tear her and Lila apart by objecting to the wedding, but neither was she about to let her daughter make the biggest mistake of her life. Eva just needed time to convince Lila that marrying David would bring her nothing but heartache.
She pushed back from the table and stood up. “This calls for a celebration. I’ll get the champagne.”
Chapter Seven
Gia looked at Eva as if she’d lost her mind. No doubt her sister had been waiting for Eva to list all the reasons why Lila was making the biggest mistake of her life and then forbid her from going through with the wedding, threatening that if she did, she’d wash her hands of her. It’s what their mother had done when Gia told them she was getting married, and it had nearly torn their family apart.
When her sister opened her mouth, Eva told her in rapid-fire Italian—their daughters had never learned the language—that she was just buying time without alienating Lila, but one way or another, they’d stop the wedding.
Her sister’s shoulders lowered from around her ears. “That’s a good plan.” Gia winced, realizing she’d spoken in English, and tried to cover her slip. “Brand. That’s a good brand of champagne.”
Eva had a feeling that Gia hadn’t been quick enough to cover her slip when James stood up. “I’ll give you a hand.”
Eva waved him off. “Thank you, but it’s not necessary.”
“I insist,” he said, his long-legged stride eating the short distance between them. He leaned in to her as they walked toward the bar. “Whatever you’re planning, forget about it.”
She shivered in reaction to his warm breath caressing her ear. It was annoying how easily she responded to him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He repeated what she’d said to her sister…in Italian.
“I have no idea what you just said. Your accent is atrocious.” It wasn’t. It was perfect.
His lips lifted at the corner. “I have it on good authority that my accent is flawless.”
“How old was she?” The words were out of her mouth before she realized how inappropriate they were, and she briefly closed her eyes. She reached out an apologetic hand and touched his arm. “I’m sorry, James. That was a thoughtless thing to say.”
He shrugged off her apology. “I’m used to your sense of humor, Eva.”
“I know, but I shouldn’t tease you. It hasn’t been that long since you lost Grace.”
His wife had been an elegant blond beauty, the exact antithesis of Eva. She’d had a soft, cultured voice that Lila swore she never raised. There’d been a time when Eva had resented the woman who was a paragon of virtue in her daughter’s eyes, but over the years, her feelings about Grace had changed.
As a mother herself, Grace had been understanding and sympathetic to Eva’s worries about Lila living far from home, unlike James, who’d thought she was overreacting and being neurotic. It wasn’t long before Eva was corresponding with Grace instead of James, and Eva liked to think they’d become friends.
“It’s been over two years,” James said, the clipped tone of his voice clearly indicating that he didn’t want to talk about it.
The sharpness in his voice didn’t hurt or offend her as it had when they were together that long-ago summer. She was older and wiser and understood that his ironclad control over his emotions had more to do with him than with her. James didn’t cope well with messy feelings and drama.
He glanced at her. “I know how you and your family feel about marriage, Eva, and I know you’re just trying to protect Lila from being hurt. But she’s not a little girl anymore. She’s a strong, independent woman who knows what she wants.”
“And you think she wants to marry this man, this David?” Eva looked over her shoulder at her daughter, who was talking to Gia and Willow. The conversation didn’t appear to be a happy one. “She doesn’t look like a blushing bride-to-be to me. Does she to you?”
“She was upset you saw her at Windemere, and of course she was nervous about telling you.” He looked away, shoving his fingers through his hair.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
He lowered his hand and took her by the elbow, steering her toward a table for two where they were out of their daughter’s view. “You’ll hear about it soon enough, and maybe it’s better you hear it from me first.” He pulled out the chair for her. “Do you want something to drink?”
“Am I going to need it?” she asked as she lowered herself onto the chair.
He nodded. “Yeah, and I could use one too. I’ll get it,” he said when she started to get up from the chair.
Heather intercepted him as he turned to leave. She had a bottle of wine tucked under her arm and five glasses in her hands. “Sorry, Eva. I got tied up with the frat boys. They wanted Boston sours, and I had to look it up.”
Eva usually worked the bar, but she kept a laminated list of the ingredients for cocktails taped to the counter. One of their servers acted as her backup, and she was on tonight. “Where’s Sam?”
“She, uh, left early.”
Eva had a feeling Sam was one of the servers who’d applied at Windemere. She was one of Eva’s more recent hires. “You should’ve called me.”
“It was fine, really.” Heather glanced from Eva to the family table. “Do you want me to leave this with you or bring—” She broke off when Gia hurried over.
“Thanks, Heather.” Her sister retrieved the bottle and two wineglasses and set them in front of Eva. “When you have a minute… Never mind, I’ll get it myself,” Gia said to Heather, and then looked at James, who’d taken the seat across from Eva. “You’re going to tell her?” It was more an order than a question.
He nodded.
“Good.” Gia gave Eva’s shoulder what she must’ve meant to be a reassuring squeeze but that was anything but, given the expression on her sister’s face.
“What is it?”
Her sister smiled, but the look in her eyes said you’re going to lose your mind. “Lila was sharing her wedding plans with us.” Gia glanced at the bottle of wine. “You might need something stronger.”
James’s broad shoulders rose on a sigh. “I know I will.”
Gia nodded and followed Heather back to the bar.
“So you and Lila have already discussed wedding plans without me,” Eva said as she poured herself a glass of wine, hurt by the thought, despite knowing it was an irrational reaction.
Of course, given her stance on marriage, they would’ve gone ahead with the plans without her. She just hoped they weren’t too far along in the planning stage. She needed time to change her daughter’s mind.
“Okay, don’t act like the wounded party. The last thing Lila would expect is that you’d want to help plan her wedding, Eva.”
“What mother wouldn’t want to be involved in her daughter’s wedding, James?”
“You,” he said dryly. He glanced at Gia when she plunked a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and an old-fashioned glass in front of him.
“Good luck,” her sister murmured, and then she headed for the family table with a tray of champagne flutes and a bottle of champagne.
“Look, Eva, Lila didn’t want a big wedding. She’d planned to get married at the courthouse.”
She caught a whiff of caramel as he poured the whiskey into his glass.
“But David’s mother was understandably excited about her son getting married, and, well…she got a little carried away.”
A simple wedding at the courthouse might’ve been harder for Eva to interfere with, so she was almost relieved to hear that David’s mother had other plans. “Exactly how carried away did she get?”
“She’s invited three hundred guests for a weekend-long wedding at…” He took a long swallow of his whiskey before continuing, “In Sunshine Bay.”
“Funny, I don’t remember getting our invitation.” Eva drummed her fingers on the table. A weekend-long wedding was ideal—so many opportunities for things to go wrong. But Eva planned to have the wedding called off long before then. “I suppose she was waiting for our guest list. It’ll take some time to put it together, but I’m sure there’s no rush.”
James narrowed his eyes as if suspicious of her mild reaction. “The wedding is a month from now.”
“Excuse me?” Her voice went up into screechy territory, which actually seemed to alleviate James’s suspicions. But it did little to alleviate her panic. She had only a matter of weeks to change Lila’s mind.
James nodded, took another long swallow of his drink, and then cleared his throat. “Don’t get upset. I’m working on this, but they’re planning on holding the wedding at Windemere.”
She was staring at him—stunned—when an all-too-familiar heated flush worked its way from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. This couldn’t be happening now. She grabbed the menu off the table, frantically fanning herself to keep the sweat at bay. “Who does this woman”—a droplet rolled down her nose and onto the table. Fan, fan, fan—“think she is?”
Madonna santo, now the sweat was pouring off her, and James was staring at her with an alarmed expression on his face. “Are you having a heart attack?” he asked, rising from his chair as if to call someone over.
She tugged on his sleeve to get him to sit down. “Don’t make a scene,” she said, and it struck her as funny because the last person to make a scene was Mr. Calm and Coolly Collected. Or it would’ve struck her as funny if she weren’t melting in a puddle of sweat. “I’m not having a heart attack. I’m having a…hot flash.”
“You had me worried for a minute,” he said, getting up from the table.
At that point Eva was too busy mopping at her brow and chest with a napkin to ask where he was going. He returned with two bar towels and a bucket of ice. He filled one of the towels with ice and then draped it around the back of her neck. Then he dipped the other towel in the bucket of ice and water, wrung it out, took the menu from her hand, gave her the damp towel, and began fanning her himself.
She moaned her appreciation. “How did you know to do that?”
“Grace. She went into early menopause after the surgery.”
“Bless her, and I don’t mean that in a southern way. Getting older—” She bowed her head. Grace would’ve given anything to grow older, and here Eva was complaining about it.
“I have high blood pressure,” he admitted, graciously letting her remark slide.
“Lila told me. She was worried about you, and so were her sisters.”
“They acted like I had one foot in the grave.”
After losing Grace, Eva imagined the girls had been terrified they’d lose their father too. “Is that why you sold your company?”
“Yes and no. After Grace died, my priorities changed. I took a good, long look at my life and didn’t like what I saw. I wasn’t living my life so much as going through the motions.” He angled his glass at her. “I can’t believe you thought I bought Windemere.”
“It was the only reason I could think of for you being there. You and Lila.” She removed the towel. The ice was melting and dripping down her back, and her hot flash had passed.
“Jennifer called and shared their plans. She wanted me here to surprise Lila.” At Eva’s raised brow, he said, “Yes. I know how much our daughter hates surprises, but I figured she could use the support.”
“Because I was going to go off the deep end?”
“You and the rest of your family. And the fact that you’re not can mean only one thing, so I’m going to warn you right now, I won’t let you ruin this for Lila.”
And they’d been having such a nice conversation up until then. She should’ve known it wouldn’t last. “I’ve just learned that my daughter has been secretly engaged for months and is having an extravagant weekend-long wedding at the resort that is in all likelihood going to put us out of business, so forgive me if I’m not reacting how you expected, James. I’m in shock.”
“You’re right. Sorry. And I hate to pile it on, but you should know that Gavin, David’s father, asked him to manage Windemere, and David accepted. They’re using the wedding to boost Windemere’s profile.”
“And Lila was okay with this? Okay with marrying a man who will be responsible for putting her family out of business?”
“Of course she wasn’t,” he said, sharing Lila’s reaction to the news with her. “But what was she supposed to do, Eva? David needs a job, and I’m sure he’s used the added inducement that they’ll be living in Sunshine Bay.”
Eva didn’t know how she was going to break the news to her mother. “Did they offer Lila a job too?”
“No, and you know she wouldn’t take it if they did.” He looked around the restaurant. “How big of a hit have you taken?”
“Too big to sustain for long. If we don’t turn our numbers around, we’ll have to close at the end of the season.”
“I told the Westfields that since I’m paying for the wedding, and Lila is the bride, that she should have some say, and at least some of the wedding festivities should be held here. Gavin wasn’t impressed, and I’m afraid I hurt Jennifer’s feelings. I may have been somewhat abrupt, but in my defense, I’d just watched our daughter run off looking like she was going to throw up.”
“My poor baby. I don’t know how you can support this wedding after what you’ve just told me.”
He shrugged. “I’m not the one marrying into the family, Lila is. She’s smart and cautious. She doesn’t jump into anything without thinking it through. The only reason she’d get married is if she wanted to.”
He was right. Lila didn’t make a decision without going through a long list of pros and cons. And Eva knew from experience that no one could convince her daughter to do something she didn’t want to do. But after everything Eva had heard about David and his family and her daughter’s reaction to the wedding plans, she was more determined than ever to sabotage the wedding. She’d just have to proceed carefully, especially with James around.
