Clearly.
“So how’d you find me here?” Rachel asked.
The lake. Blurgh. The lake. Summer vacation with the Frank family. Her heart semi-stuttered and halted because, apparently, that’s what dread felt like.
“I asked Gavin, of course.” Evelyn’s high heels sunk into the grass as she continued forward. Somehow, she managed to make the trek look easy in heels. Rachel happened to know that it could not be easy, since they’d watered late that day and the ground was extra soft.
“Gavin cares deeply for you, we all know it, so of course he knows where to find you.”
Wasn’t that just creepy?
“I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t be pushing the Gavin agenda if I agreed to come along?”
Evelyn laughed. “I’m not pushing any agenda. I’m only explaining why I’m here.”
Uh-huh, and the sky was purple, not blue.
“Ladies, it’s so nice to have a little girl time.” Evelyn sat on the edge of the blanket and baby Luke crawled right to her. Meemaw was, most certainly, a baby magnet.
She removed three boxes of a new flavor of toaster tarts—Rachel couldn’t read the flavor, but the box was bright blue—and handed them out to Rachel’s friends.
“You have the best friends, my dear.” Evelyn patted the blanket beside her, indicating it was time for Rachel to sit. “Who would’ve expected that?”
“Can I offer you a margarita?” Molly chimed in.
“Or any non-binding legal advice?” Sadie offered with a laugh as baby Luke grabbed Evelyn’s pearls and shoved them in his mouth.
“Yes on the margarita,” Evelyn said in her thick drawl. “That answer is always yes.” Evelyn then caught Rachel’s gaze and trapped it with her own. “I’m not in need of any non-binding legal advice presently, but I’ll keep you posted.”
“What did you want to talk about for the trip?” Rachel sat back down, giving a bit of space between her and her former mother-in-law.
“I’ve already directed the staff to set up an office for you,” Evelyn announced. “Bob used to work all the time when our children were smaller. Dane still does. The work ethic is wonderful, isn’t it? So I suppose it’s to be expected that you can’t take time away for family.”
Don’t engage, Rachel. Don’t engage. Not when she’d used all of her built-up frustration engaging with Evelyn yesterday.
“A real office will be significantly better than your cubby at home,” Molly said, all perky like this was a good thing and Evelyn hadn’t just built Rachel up and put her down in the same sentence. “Or Starbucks.”
“We have a cappuccino maker,” Evelyn assured, as though this was one of the reasons Rachel would want to attend. “But if you have any special requests for espresso brands, let me know. I’ll ensure they’re provided. And skim milk, of course.”
Well, that was nice. Rachel did enjoy espresso. She
tended to live on caffeine lately. She also preferred her milk of the whole variety.
“Anything else?” Rachel asked.
Evelyn held the baby with one arm and the margarita with her other. “We just want to be sure that nothing comes up to change your mind about joining us.”
“I already said I’d go.” Rachel sipped from her cup. “You can stop selling it now.”
“Consider it done.” Evelyn took a cautionary sip from her travel mug. “This is wonderful.”
“Isn’t it though?” Molly said.
“Have a sample,” Sadie handed an extra gift bag of Kaiya’s samples to Evelyn.
“How’d you get two?” Molly’s forehead scrunched.
“I guess Kaiya trusted me to give it out for her.” Sadie’s eyes glimmered.
