The Summer of Sunshine and Margot(28)

“Married?”

“What? Of course not. If he was married, he wouldn’t be attractive. I don’t do that.”

“Just checking. I’m trying for normal. With Bianca Wray in your life, who knows what you could be trying for.”

“My clients don’t influence me. I influence them.”

“If half of what I’ve read about her is true, you may have met your match.”

Margot shook her head. “So far she’s been very conventional.” Surprisingly so, she thought. Bianca had begun going through the workbook. She was reading about Cardigania, studying the history and customs. So far, their lessons were uneventful. It was almost disappointing.

A guy in a Mercedes convertible pulled up close to their table.

“Hi,” he called, his gaze firmly on Sunshine. “Can I buy you lunch?”

“No, thanks,” she said, not even looking at him.

“I have a private jet. We could be in San Francisco in an hour. I know a great place on the wharf.”

She flicked her fingers at him. “Move along.”

“Baby, I’d be good for you.”

Sunshine sighed, then leaned forward and kissed Margot briefly on the lips before looking back at the guy. She smiled brightly.

“Wrong team.”

“My loss.”

“That is actually true.”

He drove off. Margot watched him go.

“You didn’t even look at him. He was kind of gorgeous.”

Her sister rolled her eyes. “I’m not being picked up by a guy in a parking lot in front of a juice bar. That’s a very old-me thing.”

“Okay. It’s just I’m always your lesbian shill. Just once I want you to be my lesbian shill.”

“I’m totally open to it. Anytime. Is shill the right word?”

“I don’t know, but you get my point.”

Sunshine grinned. “Yes. My successful, college-educated, incredibly beautiful sister wants to be picked up by some random guy in a parking lot.”

“Just once. And he has to be a guy driving a Mercedes and who has a private jet.”

“He was lying about the jet.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know. It’s a line. Believe me.”

Margot would have to as she had no personal experience with the subject. There was just the disaster that had been Dietrich and he’d never once tempted her with a private jet. All he’d had to do was ask and she’d been there, regardless of what it cost her.

“We are cursed,” she said with a sigh.

“We are the Baxter sisters and we just can’t seem to escape our destiny.”

Margot wanted to say that wasn’t true, but they came from a long line of women who had disastrous relationships and the emotional staying power of snow in July.

Sunshine smiled. “But we have each other and maybe that’s enough.”

“It is,” Margot said firmly.

“Fake it until we make it?”

“Always.”

  “You’ll track the package?” Connor asked, sounding worried.

“I swear I will. I’ll check every half hour. Plus, the delivery guy always rings the doorbell.”

“And you’ll be home?”

“I will be home. I’m going to the grocery store as soon as I drop you off, then I’ll go directly home to wait. I promise.”

Connor still looked worried, but he nodded. “Okay. I trust you.”

“Thank you.”

The ant farm had been delivered the previous day and the shipment of ants was on its way.

“I will take them into your room and put them in a safe spot so they can recover from their journey while you’re at school. This afternoon you can move them into their new home.”

“Do you think they’ll like it?” he asked anxiously. “Will they be scared?”

“I think they’ll be happy to be in one place. Travel is exhausting.”

“It is.”

His voice was so serious, she thought, telling herself not to smile. But it was hard. Connor was adorable and his concern for the soon-to-be delivered ants was the cutest thing ever.

She joined the line of cars leading to the school. When it was their turn, she made sure he had his lunch and backpack before telling him to have a good day.

“I’ll be here right on time,” she told him. “With the ant report.”

He laughed. “Bye, Sunshine.”

“Bye, Connor.”

She pulled up a couple of car lengths to get out of the way, then watched until he was safely inside the building. Once Connor disappeared from sight, she drove to the grocery store.

She’d already planned meals for the next couple of weeks. Sunshine preferred to make large batches of food everyone liked, then freeze the extras for easy dinners. While she separated the portions with the assumption that Declan would be joining them, more often than not, he didn’t make it home in time, leaving her with a delicious lunch.

Connor was a pretty easy kid on every front, including food. He was always willing to try something new and even though he complained about vegetables, he mostly ate them. As she pulled into the parking lot at the grocery store, Sunshine thought briefly of Connor’s mother. How devastating to have such a wonderful family, such a perfect life, only to find out you were dying. To have loved like that, to have known you had it all, and then have it cruelly snatched from you... There weren’t words to describe that kind of pain.