“What are you smiling about?”
He nearly dropped his phone as Winnie popped up on one side of him and Nancy on the other. He hurriedly made his screen go black just as it buzzed through with another message.
Eliana:You know me so well.
Nancy took one of his arms while Winnie took the other, and they led him in the direction of the dining room. He resisted the urge to stare longingly toward the parking lot. He’d been so close.
“We have a question for you,” Nancy said. “What are you doing on Saturday?”
This felt like a trick question. “Cleaning out my grandpa’s bungalow.”
“That can wait,” Winnie said.
“Mr. Richardson would disagree.”
“Winnie and I will take care of him,” Nancy said. “We need your help.”
Despite himself, his curiosity piqued. And he didn’t hate the idea of Winnie and Nancy taking care of Mr. Richardson, whatever that might look like. If anyone could distract the man from his mission to clean out the bungalow, it would be those two. “What’s going on?”
“You’re coming to the fundraiser on Saturday, right?”
He hadn’t planned on it, but with the way the two hopeful, upturned faces looking at him, he couldn’t say no.
“Sure. I don’t know the details though.”
“There have been fliers all over,” Nancy admonished him. “But never mind that. It’s a fundraiser to save the sea turtles. We’ll be playing games, and it should be a lot of fun.”
“What do you need help with?”
“We need someone strong to help us set up the games.”
“I can do that.” The tension eased out of him. He didn’t know what he expected them to say, but with Nancy, you never knew. She had a lot more confidence in people’s abilities than warranted.
“Of course you can,” Winnie said. “Meet us on The Palms beach at seven on Saturday morning.”
Winnie’s phone jingled, and she swiped the screen open. “It’s Eliana.” She frowned. “She says she feels all the way better and is on her way to my house to get the bread herself.” She huffed, her expression an exact replica of Eliana’s when she was annoyed. He bit back a smile. “I’d better grab my dinner to-go and get home before she arrives. See you Saturday, Asher.”
“And wear your swim trunks,” Nancy added, as she followed Winnie toward the dining hall. “You’re going to get wet.”
Chapter 16
“Lookatthis.”Winnieheld her phone out to Horace, who sat beside her on the couch, flipping through one of his golf magazines. The man didn’t get enough of actually golfing? He had to read about it too?
More than once, recently, she’d debated hiding his golf clubs, or getting rid of them all together. But were the golf clubs the problem, or was it—
“Smitty has Instagram.” He took her phone and scrolled through the Secret Seven account she’d made. Most of the Secret Seven had posted a picture of them with their spouse and had shared the story of how they met.
“He says it’s a good way to keep up with the grandkids.”
She gritted her teeth and prayed for patience. “I’ve also been saying that for years. It’s a good way to stay up to date on Eliana, especially.”
“Smitty showed me a bunch of golf accounts with different golfing hacks, they’re called,” he said as if she hadn’t said anything at all. “A hack is where—”
“I know what a hack is.” Eliana had those on her Instagram as well. She called them life hacks, and they usually involved doing something that was just common sense, but for some reason young people overcomplicated tasks and needed to be told a simpler way of doing it.
She let out a short breath. Okay, that wasn’t fair. The hack about using dental floss to cut cinnamon rolls was quite useful. She was letting her jealousy of Smitty get to her and make her bitter about anything he touched. But, really, could Horace not go one evening without talking about the man? Sometimes she missed the good old days when they were enemies.
“Hey, it’s us,” he said, flipping the phone back around so she could see the picture of them from their wedding day. She’d worn a lacy veil that trailed all the way to the ground behind her. Her mother had thought it was very impractical, but Winnie hadn’t cared. She’d felt beautiful in it.
