Page 95 of Summer on Sunshine Bay

James said, “Carmen has agreed to let me have someone come and clean the statue on-site with the caveat that none of the coins are removed.”

“Okay,” Jennifer said. “I’m sorry I upset you, Carmen. And I hate to do it again, but I think the walls need something.”

Lila’s mother nodded. “Yes, they…” A smile spread across her face. “I know exactly what they need. Come with me,” her mother said, grabbing Jennifer’s hand.

“Eva, no!” her aunt cried. “Don’t you dare.” She ran after her sister and Jennifer, who’d escaped through the doors off the deck.

Lila’s cousins walked into the restaurant. “Wow! It looks amazing,” Willow said, coming to join them.

“Are you happy with it, Nonna?” Sage asked.

Her grandmother shrugged. “Sì, it’s all right.”

“Translated from Nonna-speak, that means she’s over the moon,” Sage said dryly.

“Bah, over the moon.” Their grandmother waved her hand, but Lila caught the flicker of a grin before it disappeared.

“Where’s Mom, Zia, and Jennifer?” Willow asked.

“I think Mom and Jennifer have gone to raid Zia’s studio, and she’s trying to stop them.”

Sage snorted. “No one can stop Zia Eva.”

Sage was right. The women returned ten minutes later with stacks of canvases, some framed, some not. Lila had known her aunt was talented, but as her mother and Jennifer began placing the canvases on the tables, she was stunned.

“Zia, these are amazing.”

“They’re okay.” Her aunt shrugged, her face flushed.

Lila’s father stood over one of the paintings, seemingly mesmerized. His hand hovered over the canvas as though he longed to touch it. Lila walked over to see what had captured his attention. It was a painting of her mother standing up to her hips in the ocean, draped in a diaphanous white sleeveless gown that teased the viewer with a hint of her voluptuous curves. Her arms were out, her head tipped back, her long, black hair swirling around her as storm clouds gathered above her and lightning crackled in the magenta sky, mirrored in the turbulent ocean waves. The painting was bold, alive with energy, just like Lila’s mother. Her aunt had painted Eva as Venus.

Her father noticed Lila standing beside him and lowered his hand self-consciously, moving to the next painting. He smiled. It was Lila and her cousins, playing in the sand when they were little, her mother, grandmother, and aunt watching from the window by the family table.

“Gia, how much for this one? I want it,” her father said.

Tears burned the backs of Lila’s eyes. He wanted to take a piece of them home with him. She glanced at her mother and caught her eye, silently begging her to put her father, and herself, out of their misery. Her mother gave a helpless shrug and then turned back to the canvases on the table.

Lila couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m going to get some air.”

“We’ll join you,” Sage said, nudging her sister and nodding at Lila.

The three of them were quiet as they walked down the stairs to the beach. There was a full moon laying a shimmering golden path out to sea and lighting up the night sky.

Lila sat in the cool sand, wrapping her arms around her knees. “I hate this,” she whispered. “I hate seeing them like this and not being able to do something.”

“You are doing something. You’re going to break the Rosetti curse,” Sage said.

Lila scoffed. “You don’t believe in the curse any more than I do. If anything, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“Maybe,” Sage acknowledged. “Or maybe they’ve just seen too many women hurt.”

“Did you see my parents? Have you seen Bruno and Nonna? How is what they’re going through now any better than what they think might happen? Why can’t they see that the risk is worth it? We all take risks every day.”

“They can’t help that they’re scared, Lila,” Willow said. “They’ve grown up living under the shadow of the Rosetti curse.”

“So did we,” Lila said. “And I’m willing to take the risk.”

“Are you, though?” Sage asked.

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