Deadly Ever After by Eva Gates (distant reading .txt) 📗

in the week, Millar, after you’ve had time to consider my latest offer. I’m glad I had the opportunity to put a face to the name first.”

“Call me about what?” Dad asked. “What offer?”

“You’ll find out. Once you’re back in the office after enjoying your little vacation.”

“I don’t think this is the time or the place,” Uncle Amos said.

“We’re here to celebrate an engagement,” Josie said.

“Yes, I heard the good news. Congratulations, Mr. Mayor.” Gordon leered at me. “Shall I assume this radiant beauty is the lucky lady?”

He meant the comment as a compliment, but my skin crawled. There was something very creepy about Mr. Gordon Frankland. He winked at me.

Yup. A creep. He knew it and he reveled in it.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a business card, and slapped it into Connor’s hand. “See you around, Mr. Mayor. We still have matters outstanding.”

“You can make an appointment by calling my office during business hours.” Connor’s voice was cool.

“I’ll do that. If I can get my lawyer’s attention for once. You might want to see to that, Millar. Have a nice dinner. Ladies.” He walked back to his table, where he appeared to be dining alone.

The waiter brought our starters out of the kitchen and placed a steaming bowl of Outer Banks clam chowder, clear and full of clams, bacon, and potatoes, in front of me.

“What did he mean with those cracks about his lawyer?” Dad asked Ricky. “Is something wrong?”

“We’re not here to discuss work.” Evangeline took a vicious stab at the innocent lettuce on her plate. “Or that odious man. Ricky, what is he doing here? He didn’t follow us, did he?”

“I doubt it,” Ricky said. “Frankland has a vacation home in Nags Head. Divides his time between here and Boston. He keeps a place in New York City too, I’ve been told.”

“To the detriment of the citizens of all those places, I’m sure,” Connor muttered.

Evangeline and Mom soon drifted into conversation about mutual friends and wives of their husbands’ partners, but I could tell that Gordon Frankland had upset Evangeline. She turned her chair slightly so she wasn’t facing directly toward his table, drank steadily, ate her salad without pleasure, chattered with forced cheerfulness, and when she wasn’t eating, talking, or drinking, chewed the lipstick off her lower lip. Uncle Amos and Connor discussed a proposed development that was splitting the town council, and Aunt Ellen wasn’t shy about expressing her opinion on the matter. Josie asked me about wedding plans, and I confessed we hadn’t made any yet.

“You’re lucky my grandma Gloria isn’t on your side of the family,” Josie said. “Or she’d be here right quick, telling you what your plans are.”

“She told me I’m now an honorary granddaughter of hers. You don’t think—”

“Be afraid, Lucy, be very afraid.”

“What’s Lucy to be afraid of?” Connor asked.

“Interfering relatives,” Josie said.

My mom was an excellent hostess, and invitations to her dinner parties were highly prized among her social set. She was able to engage fully in conversation with one person while listening to everything being said around the table. Her head whipped around now. “I am hardly interfering. I’m the mother of the bride, let me remind you. The second-most-important person at a wedding.”

Evangeline stood up and left the table without a word.

“What about me?” Connor asked. “Where do I rank?”

Mom didn’t bother to answer. “I will, of course, let Lucy make all the decisions, but—”

“We’re not talking about you, Mom. Josie’s grandma Gloria is the potentially interfering relative. I’m looking forward to hearing your suggestions.”

“I liked Gloria,” my dad said. “She sure could get herself through a bottle of bourbon, and she knows the good stuff when she sees it.”

“I thought her absolutely delightful,” Mom said. “Such charm. A true southern lady.”

“As she reminds me at every opportunity,” Aunt Ellen said.

I pushed my chair back. “If you’ll excuse me.” I headed for the ladies’ room. Several minutes ago, Ricky had risen from the table and gone to the bar inside the building, saying he didn’t want to bother the waiter. The sudden bout of thoughtfulness might have had something to do with the fact that the bartender tonight was young and female and very pretty.

He wasn’t at the bar, and I headed down the hall. I was about to turn the corner into the corridor leading to the restrooms when Evangeline’s voice, low and angry, had me stopping in my tracks.

“You’re not even trying to woo Lucy back.”

Chapter Four

“Give it up, will you, Mom,” Ricky said. “She’s not interested. She’s made her life here, and I say good for her. Lucy’s no fool.”

“Maybe not, but you are. We need her now, more than ever. When Millar hears about—”

“He won’t. We’ll fix it.”

“He will, and you won’t fix it in time, Richard. Particularly not now that Millar’s cut back on his drinking and transferred that so-called secretary of his in an attempt to save his marriage. Blasted Suzanne.”

“Now it’s Suzanne’s fault?”

“It’s not my fault, and I’m not going to see this family go down because of it. Once you and Lucy are married and you’re Millar Richardson’s son-in-law, he’ll be reluctant to move against your father.”

“You’re not listening to me, Mother.”

“No, Richard, you are not listening to me!”

I took two steps backward. The hostess was watching me. Her name’s Ruth, and I know her well because I eat at this restaurant all the time. I gave her a wink and said in a good loud voice, “Where’s the ladies’ room?”

“Down that hall and on your right,” she bellowed.

“Thanks,” I said.

When I turned the corner, Ricky had disappeared and Evangeline was walking toward me with steps angry enough to shake the walls. When she saw me, she plastered on a smile that might have been formed out of concrete. “Such a delightful evening,” she cooed. “It reminds me of when you and my Ricky came to the club on your first dates. Such good times, weren’t they?”

Like every girl wants to go to her parents’