Page 71 of Summer on Sunshine Bay

Slowly, carefully, she lifted the sheet and slid off the bed, glancing at James as she did. He didn’t move. He’d always been a sound sleeper. He looked younger in his sleep, the lines that fanned from the corners of his eyes and bracketed his full mouth smoothed out. She preferred his lines, this new face that life with all its joys, sorrows, losses, and victories had left behind. He was more beautiful now than he’d been in his twenties.

Unable to resist, she placed a knee on the bed, leaning over to softly kiss the corner of his mouth. His lips twitched, and he smiled in his sleep, tempting her to kiss him again, to tease him awake. But she was afraid that if he woke up, she wouldn’t have the strength to leave.

She walked around the bed and picked up her clothes, dressing quietly and quickly before she changed her mind. As she left the room, she glanced over her shoulder one last time.

They called it the walk of shame when a woman left a man’s home wearing her clothes from the day before. Eva had always thought it a ridiculous phrase, probably made up by some man to shame a woman. She’d never felt shame before, and she didn’t feel it now. What she felt was fear. She was afraid that her love for James had never died, that like her libido it had gone into hibernation only to be awakened by his touches, his kisses, his smiles, and his laughter.

She crept down the stairs, tiptoeing around the corner to the front door, letting out a startled scream when she walked into her daughter. “Lila!” Eva pressed a hand to her chest. “You nearly gave me a heart attack. What are you doing?”

“Me? What am I doing, Mom? I’m not the one sneaking out of dad’s bed at five forty-five in the morning!” Lila made a face and then threw up her hands, her shoes clutched in her fingers.

“Shh, you’ll wake your father.”

“Her father’s awake,” James said, coming down the stairs, wearing nothing but his boxers. “What’s going on?”

“Dad! Put some clothes on!”

James’s brow furrowed, and he glanced down at himself.

He looked so sweetly befuddled that Eva smiled and patted his cheek. “I’ll make coffee.”

She couldn’t leave him on his own to deal with Lila in the state she was in, and then Eva remembered why her daughter was upset, what she’d overheard from the other side of the ladies’ restroom door. The reason she’d come to James. They hadn’t talked about it, not really. They’d spent the day and night getting reacquainted with each other’s bodies.

James covered her hand with his, turning his face to plant a kiss on her palm. There was more than just gratitude in his sea-blue eyes, there was a question too, and Eva had a feeling it had more to do with her sneaking out than with their daughter’s state of mind.

“I don’t believe you two,” Lila huffed, and stormed past them.

“Lila, you’re not going anywhere until we talk,” James said in a voice that brooked no argument.

James rarely raised his voice at his daughter, and it was clear from Lila’s startled expression that it surprised her. And it was for that reason alone, Eva surmised, that their daughter acquiesced. Not gracefully or without attitude; she was Eva’s daughter, after all. James shook his head as Lila stomped past them, then flung herself onto the love seat like a teenager having a tantrum.

Eva almost wished they were going to lecture her about boys and breaking curfew, the dangers of drinking too much or experimenting with drugs. Those lectures had seemed like such a big deal back then, but they were nothing compared to the conversation they were about to have with her. Their beloved daughter who’d been so deeply traumatized by Eva and James fighting over her that she was willing to marry a man she didn’t love.

As if he knew what Eva was thinking, and no doubt feeling the same way, James hooked his arm around her neck. Drawing her close, he whispered in her ear, “It’ll be okay, sweetheart. We’re in this together.”

She felt a little emotional at his words and nodded. “Go get dressed.” As she watched him jog up the stairs, she felt the weight of her daughter’s stare and turned.

“You should be ashamed of yourself, Mom. He’s not one of your boy toys. How could you do this to him? He’s just getting over Grace.” Her daughter’s face hardened, a touch of fire in her eyes. “If you hurt him, I swear I’ll never forgive you.”

Eva didn’t think she could feel worse than she had the day before standing outside the ladies’ restroom, but Lila had just proved her wrong. She drew on an inner strength that had served her well in the past. She was who she was, and she wouldn’t let anyone, not even her daughter, shame her for how she chose to live her life. “I understand you’re hurting right now, but I suggest you remember who you’re speaking to, Lila Marie Rosetti. I am your mother, and not only do I not deserve to be spoken to the way you just did, I won’t allow it.”

“I’m sorry, Momma,” her daughter said, a shimmer of tears in her eyes, eyes the same sea blue as her father’s. “It’s just that—”

Eva raised her hand. “Don’t,” she warned, and walked into the kitchen. She made the coffee, her fingers digging into the edge of the counter as she watched it drip into the pot, listening to Lila’s and James’s muffled voices in the living room.

“Hey,” he said, coming up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist, dipping his head to nuzzle her neck. “Lila’s upset. She says she hurt your feelings. Take whatever she said with a grain of salt. She’s not herself right now.”

Eva nodded. “I know.”

He turned her around, frowning as he raised his hands, smoothing away her tears with his thumbs. “What did she say?”

She doesn’t want me with you. She thinks I’ll break your heart. She doesn’t realize that you could just as easily break mine, like you did the last time I fell in love with you.“Nothing. It’s not important.” She waved him away. “Go talk to her. I’ll bring the coffee in.”

***

Three hours later, after a draining and, as far as Eva was concerned, unproductive conversation with their daughter, James drove Eva back to La Dolce Vita.

He glanced at her. “So, are you going to tell me why you were sneaking out of the beach house?”

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