‘Daniel, why don’t you take my dogs,’ said Eden, who didn’t really mind who took the dogs, as long as she didn’t have to clean up their poops. ‘Here are their leads and the two of you can train them. Right, OK, that’s your job for today. I want them totally trained; I mean, I’m sure you can do it in a day.’
‘Eden,’ giggled Clary, ‘you can’t train them in a day.’
‘Auntie Eden probably could,’ said Savannah, smiling. ‘Auntie Eden can do anything.’
Eden winked at her twin sister. Eden had managed to put the frighteners on Calum Desmond. He wasn’t contesting the divorce and wanted nothing out of it, and had instead settled quite a bit of money upon Savannah. Eden had got Diarmuid Tallisker’s pals to have a quiet word with him and tell him he’d better not frighten any other women ever again or they’d find him.
‘He really thinks they’re very dangerous men,’ said Eden gleefully.
Ralphie had looked at her. ‘They can be dangerous enough, you know, honey. If they thought he was beating up a woman ever again, I wouldn’t say he’d get off lightly.’
‘I’d beat him up myself if he did that,’ Eden said, cold now. ‘Actually, I’d get my sharpest kitchen knife and cut him to shreds.’
‘You’re funny when you’re trying to be scary,’ Ralphie said.
Eden smiled as if she really was trying to be scary. She wasn’t. She was being honest. Nothing would ever make Calum pay for what he’d done to her sister and Clary but if he ever returned to hurt them, Eden would be there.
Stu and Chloe were in charge of the bouncy castle. It was going a bomb with Vonnie’s grandchildren and two friends of Minnie’s and Daisy’s. Daniel and Clary had gone off with the dogs and Chloe kept peering round to make sure they were all right.
All the small girls wanted Chloe to bounce with them while the boys wanted Stu to keep climbing up the squishy ladder and slide down frontwards so they could giggle at him.
Steve was assisting in between working on the barbecue. Ralphie was in charge of drinks, which were mainly soft drinks, but some people were drinking wine. Not Stu, though. He’d got the message this time.
Rory wasn’t drinking, either.
She knew she was more like her father than any of her sisters. Genetics, environment? Who knew. But she did not drink well and she did not want Chantal and their beloved baby to live with a heavy drinker. For the moment, she was managing not to drink but she could see her father very clearly within her. The urge to deal with feelings with a nice glass of wine was still there. She’d spoken to her father about it.
He’d said that he’d bring her to some of his twelve-step meetings if she wanted to go.
‘I’m not that bad,’ she’d said, outraged.
Stu had laughed. ‘Funny: that’s just what I used to say.’
Rory had gone back to hug Chantal. Chantal, now her fiancée, was her lodestone. With Chantal beside her, she would be safe.
Stu looked wistfully around the Sorrento. ‘We’ll miss the old place,’ he said now to Meg, who was standing beside him. ‘It’s so beautiful. We had some fun here.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Meg. ‘But life changes and we embrace the change.’
‘For sure,’ Stu said.
‘You don’t have to miss it,’ said Sonya, coming up between them and putting an arm around each of them.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Meg.
‘You are standing on Robicheaux land again,’ Sonya announced. ‘I bought it off your old pal, Frank – who drives a useless bargain, it has to be said. He never did get planning permission for all his apartments.’
‘You’re going to build apartments here?’ asked Stu, aghast.
‘No, you idiot,’ said Sonya, the way only an older sister could. ‘I thought we could renovate it and run it again like it used to be, the Sorrento Hotel, only without the craziness and the owner going off gambling.’
There was a stunned silence.
‘Really?’ said Meg.
‘Only if you’re up for it. We’ll figure a way to share it out. I still have the money my mother left me. Just because you ran through yours, Stu,’ Sonya added, ‘didn’t mean I did the same. I invested mine and, let’s face it, I’ve no family to leave it to. So we could get the Sorrento up and running again.’
‘Wow,’ said Indy.
