Sucking noisily on a straw stuck in a green drink, his dad finished it off and let out an audible sigh. “Gotta keep my strength up. My father works out harder than I do.” He chuckled. “Right now, Senior has Stan down at the garage. They scooter raced, and my father won of course.”
“He cheats,” Arnie pointed out. “Guaranteed he took the faster scooter.”
“It’s good to see them enjoying each other again. It’s been a long time.” His father’s voice was pensive.
“Stan’s going to be all right,” he assured him. “Hell, he’s fine now, and that’s saying something. His mother pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger. Pretty fucked-up shit, right there.”
“You’ll let me know if he gets wobbly, right?”
He patted his father on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I asked him to move into the cottage at Rose Hill where I can keep an eye on him.”
“I like what I’m hearing, keep talking.”
Arnie got serious and nodded. “I was thinking about how you were looking at New York real estate and thought maybe one way to go would be to pick something you could gut. A total rebuild or complete renovation.”
His dad’s face registered interest. “Aloha Design?”
“One hundred. And if Summer wants to make changes at Rose Hill, he’s the first person I’m calling.”
“It takes a village.”
“No, Dad,” Arnie replied bluntly. “It takes a family. This family. Our family. Took forever to get here, but damn, it feels good. You, me, Stan, Granddad—who wants to be called Pops by the way. It’s all good. Can’t you feel it? Summer and Arianne. Dr. Tanya Welcher. Hell, Senior’s lady friend, Bethany. We stumbled into something amazing.”
“You know what, son? You’re absolutely right. We said once Giselle was taken down, it was time to start fresh. This is our time, and maybe, fingers crossed, my second son will find someone special to fill the emptiness.”
He smirked. “Summer said the same thing. She’s got some crazy plan to find suitable brides for her brother and mine.”
“I’d get out of her way and let it happen if I were in your shoes.”
“I’m on board.” He laughed. “And who knows? Maybe I have one or two suggestions of my own.”
“Is that so? You holding out, Arnie? I see a gleam in your eye. Do you have someone in mind?”
“We’ll see,” he said with a wink. “And while we’re on the subject of the ladies in our lives, what’s the deal with the botanist professor and your plan to spend time on the mainland?”
“She had some health problems last year, and it sort of freaked her out. Nobody plans to work from college to grave. The hamster wheel took a toll, and now she sees things differently. Believe it or not, she wants to write a book.”
“On botany?”
His dad hesitated and then cracked up laughing. “No, goddammit. Contemporary romance, she calls it. Sexy times for grown-ups. Something to set women’s Kindles on fire.”
Arnie had a thousand comebacks, most right on the edge of vulgar, but he bit his tongue. Still, he couldn’t get the picture out of his mind of Ned Wanamaker and a hippie tree-hugging romance writer getting it on. The delight his old man took in wearing a ponytailed senior citizen disguise suggested he wasn’t averse to a little role-playing.
Being waited on hand and foot while she sat in a comfy wingchair and watched a fashion show, all without leaving the house, was an experience she was going to remember forever.
Summer turned her head and glanced in a large mirror across the room. From a distance, sitting straight, and with her hair in an upsweep, she had a queenly appearance.
When a model paraded by in a vintage couture velvet evening gown with a deep princess V-neck and full skirt, she fell in love. Before trying it on, she knew, and what made the ridiculously expensive dress even more fabulous was a coordinating outfit for Arianne in the same sapphire blue velvet.
Dressed in the magnificent gown, she stood before a full-length mirror and simply stared. She looked and felt like a fairy-tale princess before a ball.
The shoe choice was simple. A pair of crystal-embellished black velvet pumps from Jimmy Choo gave her goose bumps when she tried them on.
With her outfit chosen, she worked with a stylist to achieve the look she wanted. The deep neckline made her boobs look fabulous, but she worried out loud about the embarrassment of leaking.
The understanding pro dug through a suitcase of lingerie until a solution was