Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry(63)

There was a moment of awkward silence before Gina stepped out of the car and walked into the villa.

The first thing she noticed was that the picture of her mother and father walking past the palace in Monaco was missing. It was the last trip they had taken before Mom got sick. Her father had kept it on the mantel. She spotted it over in the corner atop a bookcase. Whose idea was it to move it?

The furniture in the living room had been rearranged. The two matching couches now faced each other, and the casual pillows her mother had crocheted were nowhere to be seen. Several new watercolors, scenes from Pelican Bay, hung on the walls. I wonder what she’s done to my room, Gina thought as she headed down the hall.

It was exactly as when she had visited her father three months ago. How long will it take for the fabulous designer to get her hooks on this room? Gina asked herself, then stopped. Dad told her all about me, she thought. It’s my turn now. I’m going to find out everything there is to know about her.





69





The weekend passed quickly. On Friday evening, Gina quickly agreed to her father’s suggestion that they have a drink while watching the sunset at the beach. Accompanied by Marian, they drove the half mile to the lot where they boarded the tram for the ride through the mangroves. To her credit, Marian did her best to avoid awkwardness. She insisted on sitting in the backseat during the car ride. The tram offered seating for two in each row. Waving away Gina’s offer, Marian climbed in next to a woman by herself, leaving a row for Gina and Dad.

Gina could feel herself starting to relax. While still wary of Marian, she couldn’t help but notice how happy her father looked. It was a beautiful night so they decided to stay at the waterside restaurant and have dinner.

Marian was very pleasant. She had taken the time to read Gina’s Empire Review article about the fraternity branding iron and complimented her on it. She knew about Ted and started to ask questions. She let it drop when Gina mentioned the hiatus.

Gina asked about what type of work Marian had done as a designer. “I worked in set design,” she explained. “Advertising agencies and Broadway producers used our company to create their sets and backdrops.” She’d gone back to school and landed there in the design world right after graduating from FIT. That had been her job until she married her late husband. When she met Jack, he was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs planning to retire at age fifty-five. He told her that both his father and grandfather had died young. He had no intention of keeling over at his desk, and he had made enough money to do what he wanted to do. They moved to Florida and then began taking trips. “It was wonderful,” she said. “A safari in Africa. Lots of cruises.” She wasn’t able to keep working and live the life he wanted to live, so she quit her job as a designer. Unfortunately, Jack did not escape the heart disease that plagued the men in his family. He survived the first attack but died three months later.

Her father had told Gina that Marian had two stepsons. She decided to ask about them.

“I understand you have stepsons?” Gina asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you see much of them?”

Marian paused before answering. “They have their own lives and I have mine.”

She nipped that line of conversation in the bud, Gina thought to herself.

Gesturing toward the water, Marian said, “This is the part I love. When the sun goes below the horizon and the clouds begin to glow.”

Gina glanced at her father. The glowing was not entirely confined to the clouds.



* * *



The buffet dinner the next night at the Naples Bay and Yacht Club was as good as she remembered. After a sushi appetizer, Gina treated herself to a delicious plate of veal. Knowing her father would insist that they have dessert to celebrate his birthday, Gina was grateful she had thought to pack her running shoes. I’ll work it off tomorrow morning, she promised herself.

A number of club members stopped by the table. She was surprised by how many greeted her father, and Marian, by first name.

She had not seen Mike and Jennifer Manley, her parents’ closest friends in Naples, since her mother’s death. It was good to see them again, but she was disappointed to see how warmly they greeted Marian.

Gina did get a chance to speak to them quietly before they went home. “Dad seems to be getting pretty serious about Marian,” she started, but Jennifer jumped right in.

“Gina, your dad was so lost without your mother. Marian is so good for him.”

It was not the answer Gina was looking for. Am I the only one having doubts about this situation? she asked herself.



* * *



On the way to the airport early Monday morning, she and her father made small talk and then rode in silence. Gina hated the feeling of awkwardness that hung in the air. She had never hesitated to talk to her father about Ted, work, politics, anything from the momentous to the trivial. She loved their conversations. But she found herself struggling with how to introduce a topic that was so important to her, to both of them.

Sensing her reluctance, her father broke the ice. “So tell me, has the jury reached a verdict on Marian?”

“Dad, I’m not judging Marian, you, or anybody. I’m just concerned. I’m worried that you’re going to move quickly to fill a void.”

“Gina—”