“Well, without finding anything, all we have to go on is Maggie’s word and we know what she says.”
“Jo Ellen’s coming down,” Peter reminded him. “Could you talk to her?”
“Maybe. Kate said she hates the subject—thinks it’s ancient history that we should forget.”
“In other words, you don’t want to ruin your weekend by dredging up the past?”
Eli nodded. “But I also do not want to plow into a serious relationship with this potentially hanging over our heads. I mean, the implications are major. Our mothers hate each other—or at least one does. While I happily don’t need my mother’s approval anymore, I have no interest in breaking up our family, or Maggie’s old heart. It’s a layer of complication.”
“Especially if Artie did turn him in just because he wanted to take the high road or thought it was the ethically correct thing to do,” Peter said.
“Exactly. And if it turns out that Artie did maliciously betray my father, regardless of how ‘right’ he was and how guilty my dad was? Well, can we get past that?”
“Then this is at least a little hopeful,” Peter said. “It doesn’t confirm that it was Artie. Maybe Maggie’s wrong.”
Eli exhaled slowly, clinging to that hope. “Maybe this was a misunderstanding, and the families can resolve things. Then…Kate and I might have a real chance.”
Peter gave him a small smile. “Wouldn’t be the worst outcome.”
Eli nodded, determination settling in. “I need to tell Vivien. And Crista. And Tessa. They should know about this.”
Peter clapped a hand on Eli’s shoulder. “Then go do it. Let’s get back here after a day of rest. We need to bulk up for the fashion show.”
Eli chuckled, standing up and shaking his head. But as they said goodbye and he walked to his car, he had to say a power prayer that “anonymous” was not Artie Wylie.Please, God.
* * *
“Anonymous?”
“Redacted?”
“What?”
The questions volleyed at Eli by the three women on the deck with him were understandable, despite his best efforts to explain what Peter had told him. It was just enough information to be dangerous, confusing, and frustrating.
Eli had called Vivien on his way back to the Summer House and asked her to gather Crista and Tessa with some privacy, which was probably why Lacey had taken Nolie down to the beach to play. Jonah was up in the apartment finishing the bathroom’s tile floor.
That meant Eli was able to be alone with these three—who very much deserved to know what Peter had told him.
He’d tried to call Kate from the car, but she was in a meeting; he’d fill her in later.
For now, he had to navigate the reactions of three very different women with three very different agendas as far as Artie Wylie and Roger Lawson—and their wives—were concerned.
“Well, that’s our answer,” Tessa said.
“How isanonymousan answer?” Crista snapped back, her stress palpable from the minute this conversation started.
“My father wouldn’t do anythinganonymously. He’d call that cheap, cowardly, and shameful. If he reported a criminal act, he’d proudly put his name on the documentation and give all his reasons for turning the bad guy in.”
Vivien sighed. “Tess, can you do us a favor and refrain from calling our father a ‘bad guy’? We know what he did.”
Her eyes shuttered. “Sorry. I’m just defending my dad. You know I will to the death.”
“Well, our father has already met his death,” Crista muttered. “And no one’s defending him.”
For a moment, no one spoke as they let the comment settle over them. The only sound was the rustle of the palm fronds and Nolie’s voice from the beach, an ironic contrast to the tension straining across the deck.
“I’m certain that my dad would have signed his name.”
