She was pulling out her phone, swiping her delicate finger up the screen.
“I need to be a step ahead of her, and you owe me. You knew she planned to ruin James and didn’t stop it.”
Billy was nodding and murmuring, “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” while dialing and holding up a finger to silence me. “Hi, Mom. I thought I’d catch you before Sunday lunch.”
I couldn’t help but notice the positive lilt she added to her tone. We all succumbed to our mother in one way or another.
Being a creature of habit, our mom always Sunday-lunched at our club after church. It was work to her, butwork I love, as she always said.
“Oh, that’s lovely.”
I overheard Billy slipping further into politician’s daughter mode. I was sure my mom was discussing a floral centerpiece.
“No, I haven’t seen Ford. He’s been busy with his movie, and I’ve been in accent lessons all week for my next character. She’s from Boston, soI have to get it right.” She elongated the A inhave, showing off her skills. “I don’t know what he’s planning to do… How would I?” The minx had the nerve to look up and wink at me, as if I didn’t know her acting skills.
I could tell my mom was bitching up a storm on the other end—although I was sure in a very ladylike fashion. Billy was doing a lot of head nods and letting my mom punch herself out before she landed the blow.
“You’re what? You can’t do that, Mom. Dad would be disappointed. He didn’t like them.”
More of my mom carrying on, and then,finally, Billy said goodbye and reminded her, “Think about all this, Mom.”
My legs couldn’t be helped, and I was up and out of the chair, pacing an evil rhythm. “What is she doing?” My eyes were laser trained on my sister, pinning her to the lounger.
She didn’t say a word though.
“Willa.” Her God-given name had her staring back at me. “You never tell Mom to think about a thing. What. Is. She. Doing?” I punctuated each word, losing patience by the millisecond.
Billy stood and walked toward the pool, and I followed. She stood on the edge and held her face up to the sun.
“You’re going to undo all the facials and Botox,” I said, coming up next to her, realizing she was struggling with what my mom was planning.
She took a long and arduous breath. “Remember Richard?”
“Dicky?” I asked with a smirk, remembering her high school flame, wondering what he had to do with me.
“Richard.” She corrected my nickname. She always hated when I called him Dicky, but he was a pompous, arrogant, shifty son of a senator. “Remember his mom died?”
I nodded. “I’m not tracking with you, Bill…”
“His dad got remarried right away. Was good for his campaign. The woman got pregnant right away. Was good for her prenup…”
“Still not tracking with you, Bill.”
“Caroline. They call her Sweet Caro in the press.”
I knew who she was. Beautiful, redhead, loved the spotlight, and I’m sure agitated her half brother, Dicky. But I still didn’t know what this had to do with James. I raised an eyebrow to Billy.
“Mom is sending her here. On a fix-up mission, with press to boot.”
“What? I’m almost forty-five years old. I don’t need to be set up by my mommy.”
“To a twenty-two-year-old,” Billy added. “Seems she’s had a tiny run-in with the law. DUI, and the family wants her off and married, pregnant and barefoot.”
“Oh, come on.” My fists clenched. “I’m hardly the solution, and I assume they plan to splash this all over the internet?”
Billy nodded. “Even worse, Richard is bringing her, which means he’s been tasked with pulling off this media circus.”
“I hope Dicky’s married, and Mom isn’t trying for a two-for-one. She would do something like that and hook us up with half-siblings.”
