“Oh, I didn’t realize you sold some of your creations.”
“I sell most of them.” Maile wrapped the fine mohair yarn around a needle. “Tani helped me create an online shopfront years ago. We make enough to support ourselves.”
“Ah.” Eve had simply assumed that the money Tani had made on the sale of the business and the Oka-Kane mansion had been enough to support her and her sister-in-law indefinitely, though now she felt foolish about that assumption, like she was a rich girl with no concept of money. “That’s great. Where is Tani anyway?”
“Probably resting up. We do have the rehearsal dinner tomorrow.”
Ah, yes, tomorrow was Friday and the rehearsal dinner, and then the wedding on Saturday, and then the weekend would be over.
And so would her affair or onetime fling or whatever with Gabe.
She ignored the pang of sadness. “Do you think—”
“There is almost no staff in that house.” Tani settled into the chair on the other side of Eve. “It’s far too big to get along with no help.”
Eve rubbed her hands on her thighs. She hadn’t felt particularly nervous around Tani over the past few months, since the families had largely reconciled. Knowing a secret about the other woman changed things. “We asked to have the minimum staff this week. More help will arrive tomorrow, ahead of the wedding, though.”
Tani gave her a distant nod, and then looked out at the yard. Eve wondered what she thought of when she looked at Gabe. “Good.” Tani leaned forward and poured herself a glass of iced tea.
“The wedding will be beautiful,” Maile enthused. “This place is perfect. What a view.” She glanced at the slice of glimmering lake, not far away.
Tani sniffed. “Hopefully the view will distract everyone from gossiping over why the two of them are rushing to the altar. In my day, that only meant one thing.”
“You and Robert got married six months after you met.” Maile’s tone was sweet, but the reminder was pointed.
The lines around Tani’s lips deepened. “And plenty of people counted backwards on their fingers when Paul was born.”
Maile shrugged. “Livvy told you. She wanted to have the wedding on her birthday. The date has some sort of significance for them.”
Eve had a hunch as to what that significance was—her brother’s annual disappearances around this date made a lot more sense, in retrospect—but she wasn’t about to snitch to Livvy’s mother. “People get married quickly all the time now,” she said instead. “No one will be gossiping.” Anyone who might be cruel had already been culled from the guest list.
“Hmm.” Tani took a sip. “And your father? Have you heard from him?”
Another person might be fooled by the older woman’s forced casualness, but Eve was not. John and Tani had easily reconciled, but John hadn’t masterminded the takeover of her half of the company. She doubted there was any way Tani was looking forward to sitting across the aisle from Brendan. A man she’d grown up with, shared family with, and who had promptly screwed her over when she’d been grief-stricken. “No, ma’am. I have not. I don’t think Nicholas has either. I’m pretty sure he won’t be coming.”
Tani bowed her head, her straight black hair hiding her face. “Very well.”
“My grandfather will be arriving tomorrow,” she offered, in an effort to cheer Tani.
Maile made a small sound of pleasure. “And Sonya and Rhiannon, yes?”
Eve licked her lips. She hadn’t known if she could bring up Gabe’s adoptive mother and sister to Tani. “Yes.”
“It will be good to see those two again.”
Eve cast around for something neutral she could say. “I vaguely remember them from when I was young.”Don’t poke. Don’t prod. This is none of your business.Besides, she liked Tani. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt her.
“Sometimes I forget you’re younger than the others. You weren’t even born when Gabe was adopted.” Maile clicked her tongue. “My God, what a sad story that was. Eve, can you hand me the green?”
Eve leaned over and grabbed the green yarn from Maile’s bag. “Oh?” Despite her best intentions, Eve turned toward Robert’s sister, wondering if the older woman knew that her brother had fathered Gabe. “How so?”
“The way he was found, of course.”
“That’s enough,” Tani said. “Gossiping isn’t ladylike.”
“You gossip worse than me,” Maile returned smartly. “We went to high school with his birth mother actually. Linda. I never liked her, but I didn’t know her well. She should have given Gabe up the second he was born instead of mistreating him like she did for three years.”
Eve bit her lip, her heart aching with confirmation that Gabe’s start in life may have been more difficult than she could fathom. She knew she should end this conversation, it wasn’t fair, but she was so hungry for information about him. “Did Linda have an addiction or something?”
