Page 21 of Summer on Sunshine Bay

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.”

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