“Don’t worry about Grandmother. She’s like that. She’ll get used to the idea. And for the record, she doesn’t like me very much either.”Emily grinned at Blake and shrugged.
“I seem to cause problems for everyone,”Blake said softly.
“Nonsense. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have you here and part of our family,”Evelyn assured him.
“And we love having you work at Parker’s,”Donna added.“We’re very happy that you came and found Heather and Jesse.”
Heather stood before Blake and touched his arm.“Grandmother can be…difficult. We’ve all learned to live with it. She’s not very accepting, and she can be a bit…cold. Please don’t take it to heart.”
Doubt clouded Blake’s eyes, and he looked a bit overwhelmed. Evelyn sighed. Patricia Beale could do that to a person.
Emily grabbed his hand and tugged on it.“Come on. Enough of Grandmother. Let’s go walk around and get some funnel cakes. And fish tacos. Oh, and ice cream. Can’t forget the ice cream.”
“You two have fun,”Evelyn said as they walked away. She turned to Donna and Heather.“That was…not great.”
“No, but very typical Patricia Beale,”Donna sighed.
“But she doesn’t get to hurt Blake’s feelings. I’ll do anything to protect him from her. Anything.”Heather glanced over to where Patricia had joined her friends.
“We all will, sweetie. We all will.”Evelyn sighed and turned back to get the booth ready, picking up her mother’s untouched coffee and dropping it into the trash. Disappointment in herself swept through her. She should have told her mother before this. Protected Blake and Heather from this. Just another time she’d failed as a mother and now as a grandmother, too.
Donna walked over and hugged her.“Quit beating yourself up. I see it in your eyes. Mother is difficult in the best of times.”
She sent her sister a grateful smile.“But I wish—”
Donna held up a hand.“It will all be okay. I promise.”
She just hoped her sister was right.
Chapter 27
Donna took a break from working the Sea Glass Cafe booth to walk around the festival with Barry. They mingled in the crowd and paused at the many booths, looking at the arts and crafts and sampling the array of foods.
“I’m glad you could take a bit of time off from working. The festival is a lot more fun with you on my arm. Besides, I miss you.”Barry paused near a trio of palm trees for them to take in some shade.
“And yet, you saw me last night.”
“And soon, I’ll see you every night and every morning.”He gave her a special look that made her go weak at the knees. Did he have any idea he did that to her?
Delbert Hamilton came walking up to them, an ice cream cone in his hand and a broad smile on his face.“This is the best festival ever. I remember it from when I was a young boy. I can’t believe the town has kept up the tradition after all these years.”
“They have. And Harbor Festival is my favorite festival of the year. Oh, though, maybe the Christmas tree lighting is. That’s always so magical.”Donna pursed her lips.“But the Beach Festival with the sand building contest is fun, too.”
Delbert laughed.“Moonbeam sure likes its festivals, doesn’t it?”
“We do.”Donna glanced across the crowd.“Oh, look. Isn’t that your friend Cassandra Cabot?”
Delbert whirled around and searched the crowd.“It is,”he said with a quick intake of his breath.
Donna waved when Cassandra looked in their direction.
The woman waved back and headed through the crowd toward them with an older gentleman by her side. Her face broke into a warm smile as she approached.“Hello there.”
“Ah…hello, Cassandra.”Delbert stood there with a bit of a star-struck expression on his face.
Donna smothered a smile. She’d been right. There was something between these two.
“Uncle, I don’t know if you remember him, but this is Delbert Hamilton. He used to come to The Cabot back when we were kids.”
