Page 11 of Summer on Sunshine Bay

“Crab,” she gritted out. “A crab bit me.” No way was she admitting that she had a stitch in her side. Thankfully, a wave splashed up to her calf, and she shook her leg as if dislodging a crab from her toe. “Go ahead. I’ll catch up.”

Her sister ran across the sand. Eva found it annoying that, unlike her, Gia was glowy and not sweaty, and she was breathing as if she’d taken a leisurely stroll along the beach. Whereas Eva sounded as if she’d run ten miles.

“How bad is it?” Gia asked.

“Bad. I’m lucky I didn’t lose my toe.”

Her sister grinned. “A crab didn’t bite you. You have a stitch in your side. Here.” She took Eva’s hand and lifted it gently over her head. “Now stretch slowly to your right and breathe deeply.”

Eva grumbled as she did as Gia suggested, surprised when the cramp lessened. She did the stretch twice more and then straightened.

“Good to go?” her sister asked.

“No, but I don’t have much choice.” She nodded at their mother. “It’ll take two of us to convince her not to make a scene.”

Gia cupped a hand over her eyes and looked down the beach. The harbor shimmered in a golden haze as the sun lowered in the butterscotch-yellow sky, its reflection glittering on the rolling surf. “How many of our regulars do you think are there?”

“Everyone who canceled their reservations in the past week,” Eva said as they set off toward Carmen, who’d slowed from a jog to a power walk.

Her sister stopped Eva with a hand on her arm. “Tell me the truth. Can we keep the restaurant afloat?”

“Of course,” she said with far more confidence than she felt. Gia might be her older sister, but Eva had always felt the need to protect her. “Our food is better, and so are our prices.”

Although if the head chef at Windemere kept undercutting them, they’d have to pay a premium for seafood and produce. Either that or adapt their menu. It was something Eva had talked about to Mimi and Bruno after returning from the market. She hadn’t mentioned it to her mother.

Carmen motioned for them to hurry up with an impatient wave of her hand. It seemed she’d taken to heart Eva’s suggestion to stop yelling. The three of them jogged the rest of the way down the beach. Only Eva’s ragged breathing, the sound of the waves rolling onto the shore, and neighbors calling out to one another in their backyards broke the silence.

Fifteen minutes later, they slowed to a walk as the sound of laughter and the smell of woodsmoke from the firepits on Windemere’s walled patio reached them.

“Crouch down,” Carmen whispered when the half-moon stone wall draped in pink hydrangeas came into view. They duckwalked toward it. Within minutes Eva’s thighs cramped and burned, and she fell behind.

When her mother and sister reached the base of the wall, they glanced over their shoulders. Her mother sighed and gestured for Eva to pick up the pace. Eva gave thanks to the Madonna when she finally reached them. She sat on the sand, resting her back against the sun-warmed wall. If she didn’t have to move for a week, she’d be happy.

Her sister smirked as if she could read Eva’s mind. “You should join my early-morning yoga sessions. I’d have you running the length of the beach in no time,” she whispered.

Gia was into yoga, meditation, communing with nature, and hugging trees. Eva was into food, wine, bingeing Netflix, and reading about women who buried their cheating husbands under trees.

Eva mouthed,Kiss my culoat her sister. Although they probably didn’t have to mouth their words or whisper. Eva doubted anyone would hear them over the laughter and raised voices drifting past them on the humid air. It sounded as if the restaurant was packed.

Gia grinned and then whipped her head around. Their mother was climbing the wall like a monkey. Gia wedged her toes into a crevice between stones and followed after Carmen. Eva closed her eyes, happy to leave them to it as the foamy surf lapped at her hot feet. She blinked open her eyes. The tide was coming in faster than they’d anticipated. Then again, it had taken them almost thirty minutes to get there.

Tipping her head back, she was about to tell Carmen and Gia to move it when she realized how her mother would feel if she discovered the Hollingsworths celebrating at Windemere as Eva fully expected.

She jumped to her feet and tugged on their legs. “Get down and leave it to me. You don’t have your glasses, Ma. You won’t be able to see anything.”

Eva caught her sister’s eye, mouthingRuthandmurder. As in their mother would murder Ruth on the off chance she was able to see Ruth without her glasses. Not really, but Carmen would defriend Ruth, which would mean they’d have to listen to their mother rant for months to come about the betrayal.

“Eva’s right, Ma,” Gia whispered, reaching up to pull on the back of Carmen’s dress.

It took them five minutes to convince their mother to come down off the wall and for Eva to take their place. She stuck her toes in the same opening between the stones that her sister had used.

Her mother yelped. “Hurry, the tide’s coming in!” Placing her hands on Eva’s backside, she gave her a boost.

Carmen grunted, putting her shoulder into it. “Madonna mia.”

Eva turned her head to eye her mother. “Remember who I inherited myculofrom.”

Admittedly, Eva’s figure had grown curvier than her mother’s this past year. It was possible Ryan had a point. As today had proved, she was out of shape. But thanks to the hours she spent kneading dough every day, her hands and arms were strong, and she managed to climb the wall without depending too much on her legs, which had yet to recover from jogging in the sand.

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