Page 64 of The Sweet Life

“You know that street artist J.R.?”

“J.R.? I think I’ve heard of them.” She met Flynn’s warm, smiling eyes.

“They painted a mural for us, and you’re talented, Mom,but this J.R. is just wow, amazing. The painting is so beautiful and so lifelike, it almost felt like Alice was here with us.” Sage sniffed, and Gia pressed a hand to her heart, her eyes filling with tears. “It was exactly what Jake and I needed to come home to. I wish there was a way we could thank them. You wouldn’t happen to know who they are, would you?”

For a minute, Gia thought about telling Sage the truth, but she didn’t need something else to fight about with her mother, and she was afraid that once everyone knew who she was, it would rob her of the renewed joy she’d gotten from painting.

“I don’t, honey. But I can ask around.”

“Okay. I’ll send you a photo of the mural.” They said their goodbyes and then Gia disconnected.

“They loved it, didn’t they?”

“They did.” Her phone dinged with an incoming text, and she turned the screen to Flynn.

He studied the painting. “I knew you were an incredible artist, but this painting… I’m in awe of your talent. I’m in awe of you.” He kissed her long and slow and then broke the kiss. She was about to pull his mouth back to hers when he asked, “Exactly how much time do we have before you have to be at your sister’s?”

Gia had been walking on air since making love with Flynn. Buoyed by the happy, contented feeling of being loved by Flynn Monroe, she’d been determined to be her best self at the filming. She was in such a state of bliss that she was immune to the shots Cami lobbed her way, and to commentsfrom Carmen that made Gia feel like the favorite child’s handmaiden. Or so she’d thought. Now she was hanging on to her good intentions by a thread.

Gia placed the two dishes she’d made with her pesto sauce on the island. At her niece Lila’s suggestion, they’d begun creating dishes around their signature sauces. Cami didn’t have a recipe to share, but she’d introduced her four-cheese sauce. She’d gone over her allotted time introducing herself and her sauce and her partnership with the family at the beginning of the segment. Gia couldn’t lay the blame entirely at her sister’s feet. Carmen had used so many superlatives introducing her golden child that Gia had begun to think she was making them up.

Then Cami provided the shtick for Carmen as their mother prepared calzones with her marinara sauce, adding an extra ten minutes to her segment. Eva had tried speeding things up, but Cami had insisted they sing “Ti Amo” together while Eva created spicy creamy chicken pasta with her signature sauce. The lyrics made Gia think about Flynn, so she was able to brush off the fact she now had approximately three minutes to share her recipes.

She smiled at the camera. “It was great to read in the comments how many of you tried my pesto shrimp pasta recipe last week and how many of you bought our signature sauces. I hope you know how much we appreciate all your support. It’s because of all of you that these products from my mother, my sister, and me have gone national. Grazie, grazie, grazie.”

Her mother and sister joined in, sharing their thanks.

Cami nudged Gia out of the way with her hip and, pressing her hands to her chest, beamed at the camera. “And I can’tthank you enough for your excitement about the introduction of my four-cheese sauce, Maryann. You too, Sophie, Raeanne, Tina…”

Gia squinted at the comments coming up on the screen, wondering if there was something wrong with her eyesight, because nowhere did she see any comments about Cami’s four-cheese sauce from the women her sister had named, or from anyone else for that matter.

Gia glanced at Eva, who was studiously avoiding her gaze. So she wasn’t wrong. Cami was making it all up and hogging all the attention for herself.

Stay calm. Think of Flynn and his promise for tonight.Good, that worked, she thought as she gently nudged Cami out of the way. Or at least tried to. Her sister had a freakishly strong core.

Gia smiled, pushing her way in front of Cami and displaying her dishes for the camera. “We’re excited for the introduction of Cami’s sauce too. Now today I’ve got recipes for my quinoa pesto salad and pesto flatbread. Both would be perfect to serve—”

Cami’s booming laugh cut her off. “You guys! I can’t keep up with all your comments. But I promise, on my next—”

The music signaling the end of their segment came on, and Gia pushed Cami out of the way, determined to share her recipes with their audience.

“Do you mind? I’m talking to my fans. The oldest in a family are always the bossiest, aren’t they?” Cami said to the camera, rolling her eyes.

And that was when the thread to Gia’s good intentions didn’t just break, it snapped. “And the youngest areattention-seeking narcissists,” she said, and dumped her quinoa pesto salad on her sister’s head.

Cami, with quinoa pesto salad dripping down her face, looked at the camera. “I’m sorry you had to witness that, but this is what you’ll get when you tune in to my show, real, raw emotion.”

Gia turned to her mother and sister, wondering if they were hearing Cami take over their show, but they were both wincing as Cami slid a finger down her face, licked off Gia’s salad, and made a face. “And recipes with my four-cheese sauce that will put this one to shame.”

Fighting against her mother and Eva’s hold, Gia tried to reach her sister, swearing at her in Italian. She managed to get hold of her pesto flatbread and fling it at Cami, who fired a calzone at Gia’s head, nailing Eva instead. Eva let go of Gia to wipe sauce from her eyes, and that’s when the food fight began in earnest.

“Stop! Stop this right now,” Sage said, running into the kitchen and putting herself between Cami and Gia. “This is my fault. I should have told you before you got here. I’m sorry.”

Cami lowered a ladle of spicy creamy chicken pasta, and Gia lowered a calzone, staring at her daughter in confusion. “It’s not your fault, honey.”

“It is, but in my defense, I didn’t think there was any way you’d find out my father was in Sunshine Bay before I told you.”

Chapter Twenty-One

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