Page 64 of Summer on Sunshine Bay

Her aunt and grandmother turned to look at Lila, and she caved. They were going to find out anyway. Maybe it was better coming from her. She told them what she’d said and how much she regretted her mother overhearing her.

Her grandmother nodded as if she wasn’t surprised by Lila’s confession, and her aunt patted her shoulder. “We knew it was hard on you. It was hard on all of us.”

Lila let out the breath she’d been holding, relieved that they didn’t question her further. Though she had a feeling she wasn’t off the hook yet.

“We have to find Eva,” her grandmother said. “There’s no telling what she’ll do when she’s upset.”

“She’ll go to Surfside,” her aunt said, and then she and Carmen started arguing about which bar she’d go to.

“We have a restaurant full of guests. We can’t just leave,” Sage pointed out.

If it weren’t for her cousins, Lila didn’t know how she would’ve gotten through the next forty-five minutes. They ran interference for her while Gia and Carmen fulfilled their hostess duties as if nothing were wrong. Clearly the Rosettis were accomplished actresses.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” David’s mother asked as Lila walked her to the door. “I didn’t realize you were allergic to canola oil. I’ll have to let the chef know. Tell Eva goodbye for me. I hope she’s okay. She seemed really upset.”

“Honestly, I’m more concerned about Mr. Balderson, the owner of the market.” Especially because everyone at the shower now believed his oil was mislabeled. Her grandmother should’ve thought about that before she’d come up with her excuse for Lila’s blotchy face and her mother’s disappearance.

“You could’ve died, Lila. Your mother has every right to be upset with him. Can you imagine how she would’ve felt if something had happened to you? She really should consider suing the man.”

Lila held back a groan. Once her grandmother had gotten going, her story had become more dramatic with each telling.

“I didn’t want to say anything in front of my grandmother, but you know, it’s possible my mother grabbed the wrong bottle.” Lila didn’t want the chefs at Windemere to boycott the market.

“Do you really think so?”

“I do.” Lila nodded, then smiled. “I’ll probably see you at Windemere tonight. David and I are having dinner together.”

“Oh, good,” Jennifer said, looking relieved. “I was a little worried after, you know, the game.”

Lila waved her hand. “I knew the answers. I was just winding up my cousins.”

“I thought she was never going to leave,” Sage said when the door closed behind Jennifer. “Willow, hurry up!”

“I called every bar in town, and they said they haven’t seen her,” Willow shared when she joined them.

“It doesn’t mean she’s not there. They’ve been covering Eva’sculosince she started sneaking into bars at seventeen,” her aunt said, hiking her purse over her shoulder.

“You’re coming too?” Sage asked her mother as she pushed open the door.

“We both are,” Carmen said, joining them outside the restaurant. She locked the door.

They’d gone back to closing on Sundays and Mondays. In part because her father’s arguments against changing their days of operation after decades were sound, but also because they needed at least two days a week to work on the restaurant’s face-lift, which was scheduled to begin the next morning.

Thinking of her father made Lila queasy. She had to tell him what she’d said, what her mother had overheard. She imagined he’d be just as upset as Eva to learn the impact their tug-of-war had had on Lila. But even if her father guessed that the baby had played a role in Lila’s decision to marry David, she knew he wouldn’t try to convince her she was making a mistake.

He’d support and stand by her no matter what. He was the same way with her sisters. Even if he knew they were setting themselves up for failure—like her sister Sheena in her latest business venture—he wouldn’t try to talk them out of it, but he was always there to pick them up and give them a pep talk when things didn’t work out.

Lila piled into Sage’s car with her family. Willow called shotgun before her, so she was stuck in the back seat between her grandmother and aunt. She was worried they’d ask what had precipitated her rant, but Sage turned on the radio. It was set to a golden-oldies station, which wasn’t her cousin’s taste in music at all. When Carmen started singing along with Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” Lila met Sage’s eyes in the rearview mirror and mouthed her thanks.

Her cousin smiled and started singing along with Carmen, and the rest of them joined in. The windows were down, a warm ocean breeze blowing through their hair, music blasting as they cruised the back roads of Sunshine Bay. It brought back fond memories. They’d had an old station wagon when Lila was growing up. All six of them would pile into the car on Sundays and go for a drive.

Sage parked on a side street. Between pubs, cocktail bars, restaurant bars, and patios, there were at least twenty places her mother could be. They split up. Lila went with her cousins, and her aunt and grandmother went together. They’d call if they found Eva, and Lila would do the same.

If they didn’t find her mother on Main Street, they’d pile back in the car and hit restaurants and bars on the outskirts of town. But it made sense she’d be on Main Street. It was in easy walking distance of La Dolce Vita. Then again, her mother knew practically everyone in town and could easily find someone to drive her wherever she wanted to go.

Forty-five minutes later, they’d hit nine bars on their list. Willow looked back longingly at the patio they’d just left. “Aw, come on. It’s almost dinnertime, and those sliders looked amazing.”

Sage snorted. “It’s four, and it wasn’t the sliders you were drooling over.”

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