Chapter 2
It only took Eugenia an hour to finish packing when she got back to the apartment from
her office. She had three bags full of clothes for every eventuality, evenings at home,
days at the pool, a few fancier things to wear out to a restaurant, or a party, if they were
invited anywhere dressy. Daphne and Phillip were giving a small outdoor party for them
in two days, and Eugenia had hired a cook to make lunch and dinner at her house so they
could enjoy their time together and relax at meals. It would be a real vacation for
everyone, even for Eugenia, not having to wash dishes or prepare meals to everyone’s
liking.
The house came with two maids to make their beds and keep everything clean and
orderly. It was going to be a week of luxury, maybe for the last time. She usually met all
her children in Europe for the week’s holiday, at her invitation and expense, at some of
the best hotels, in rented villas, or on chartered boats. The six cabins on a standard
charter were perfect for them. But with the pandemic not quite over yet, it seemed
easier to stay in the States. Daphne was heavily pregnant and couldn’t travel, and
Eugenia wanted her to be with them too. So the property she had rented in East
Hampton, near the Southampton home where Daphne and her family had spent the
pandemic, seemed the right choice. Eugenia was looking forward to it, and hoped that
everything would go smoothly, and was as nice as she remembered when she visited the
house. She’d rented it because it had a main house and three smaller guesthouses and
would accommodate them all.
She had a salad after she closed her bags, and was on the road by eight o’clock. The
doorman loaded the suitcases into her car, along with a few shopping bags filled with
loose ends. The Friday night traffic was light by then. At the height of the summer, as it
was now at the end of July, it could take four hours to get to the Hamptons in heavy
traffic. She made it in two and a half, and found the keys to the main house easily, where
the realtor said she’d left them in a box on the porch. There were handsome gates to the
property, and a long driveway.
The main house had three bedrooms on the upper floor, in addition to the master
suite, which Eugenia remembered as spacious, airy, and lovely. Every bedroom had its
own bathroom. Downstairs on the ground floor there were two living rooms, a den, a
dining room, and an enormous kitchen with a big table where they could all eat together
informally. It suited all their needs to perfection, with the three smaller guesthouses, the
pool, and a dressing room. There was a downstairs playroom in the main house with a
pool table, a movie room, and a huge library of films.
Her children with partners would each have a guesthouse of their own, each with
two bedrooms. Gloria with her fiancé, Geoff, and Sofia with Bradley Jackson, a man
they were meeting for the first time. He was a young doctor at the hospital where she
worked as a nurse practitioner and midwife. The third guesthouse would be occupied
by Stefano and his wife, Liz. Eloise was staying in the main house with her mother,
since she was on her own. Eugenia was curious about the man Sofia was bringing. She
was extremely private about her life, and she had said little about him, except that he
was a very talented doctor. But if she was bringing him on their family vacation,
Eugenia knew he was important to her, so all eyes would be on him. And Sofia never
brought men home. Being together on vacation was more challenging now that most of
her children had partners. There was more opportunity for dissent and conflicting
opinions, provoked by their partners. It was a lot easier when they were younger and
came alone, but this was the way it was now, and Eugenia had adjusted to it. Daphne
was the peacemaker, and Phillip seemed to make every situation easier in a fatherly
way with unlimited patience, and knew when to withdraw when family discussions
became heated. He was an asset, not only for Daphne, but for all of them. He was older
and knew better than to enter the fray when things went off the rails. They were a lively
group with different personalities and strong opinions, and expressed them freely.
Stefano’s wife, Liz, was exactly the opposite of Phillip. She was famous for making
some caustic, controversial remark or harsh criticism her in-laws took exception to, and
Stefano then had to defend his wife, when his sisters challenged her and complained
about her later. She came from a very simple background, having grown up in Queens,
and had some rough edges, and was occasionally aggressive when she felt threatened by
Stef’s sisters. She was extremely bright, had paid her own way through business school,
and was politically very liberal, which some of the others weren’t. She didn’t like
snobs and she thought it was ridiculous that Stefano had an inherited title and was a
prince. She made fun of him for it, although none of them used the title, and Eugenia
never had either except when she was out with Umberto socially, when they were
married. He expected it and took the title very seriously, although he was the prince of
nothing now, with no throne for a royal to be on in Italy. Princes in Italy were a dime a
dozen, although Eugenia would never have said that to her husband. She used the title
for her haute couture line, but not personally. It was just part of Umberto’s mystique and
meant more in Europe than in the States, which she always thought was part of why he
moved back to Europe. There he could be Prince Umberto of Florence, and not just
Eugenia Ward’s husband, which sounded common to him, and demeaning. He never felt
denigrated by spending her money, however, by any name.
The family jury’s verdict was not yet fully in on Geoff, Gloria’s fiancé. He was from
an aristocratic family and Eugenia had found him snobbish when she met him. He was
also very attached to his title. His father was an earl, although penniless, with a
threadbare, crumbling estate in Sussex, a drafty, dreary manor house Geoff made sound
like Buckingham Palace. Geoff was always aware of who had money and who didn’t. It
mattered to him. He could be fun when he’d had a lot to drink and took himself less
seriously. Eugenia found him pompous and irritating, with enormous literary pretensions
about the novel he’d been writing for as long as Gloria had known him, two years now,
nearly three. He never seemed to finish the book. Eugenia knew that Gloria was
impressed by him, though her mother was not entirely sure why. Gloria was a very
serious writer, and Eugenia thought she would become successful at it in time. She
wasn’t as sure about Geoff. He was all talk, bragged about graduating from Oxford, and
as an only child was not used to fitting into a big family.
He and Gloria were treating their wedding as the event of the century, which
worried Eugenia. The expenses kept growing, and while she had set a large amount
aside to pay for it, a huge stretch for her at the moment, they were already at twice the
original budget, which Gloria was completely oblivious to, as was Geoff. They never
mentioned the expense and expected Eugenia to put on a grand event and foot the bill for
everything. It never occurred to them that business might be bad and it might be hard for
Eugenia, and she never said it. The dress she had designed, according to Gloria’s
wishes, was fit for a queen, or a Saudi princess with a very rich father. The dress was
entirely made of antique lace, with a matching coat, a ten-foot train, and an exquisite
veil. It was encrusted with tiny pearls and had taken a year to make, and Gloria was
going to look gorgeous in it, in exactly four weeks. Umberto hadn’t contributed a penny
to the event, of course. Eugenia didn’t expect him to, but some fatherly gesture might
have been nice, and would have been appreciated. It never occurred to Umberto or to
Gloria that he should contribute. She was used to her mother shouldering the full load
for everything, alone. They all were. It was what she had always done, since Umberto
wasn’t going to, and until recently she could afford it. Now it was another story, and
from the look of her accounts, the vacation in the Hamptons and Gloria’s wedding
seemed like they might be the family’s last moments of ease and luxury, but they didn’t
know it yet since Eugenia hadn’t told them, and didn’t intend to for a while. She was
still hoping for a miracle to help turn things around.
She took a quick tour of all the houses when she arrived to make sure that everything
was in place for their arrivals the next day, and it was. The houses were spotless, the
beds perfectly made with beautiful Porthault sheets from Paris. The furnishings were
modern and well chosen from Italian designers by a well-known decorator. It was just
as Eugenia remembered it, only better. There were even flowers placed in every room,
and Eugenia settled into her own suite at midnight, turning on the large screen TV in her
bedroom when she got into her bed in the perfectly pressed sheets, and minutes later,
she was asleep. The vacation had begun.
—
The sun was streaming into the room when Eugenia woke up the next morning, and the
TV was still on. She turned it off and opened the windows, as it was warm with a light
breeze. She could see the ocean in the distance, and they had access to the beach down a
private pathway which she wanted to explore later. She went downstairs, and the maids
were busy, vacuuming the living room. They seemed like pleasant young women and
one of them offered her a cup of coffee, which she accepted gratefully, and then she
went to sit on an old-fashioned porch swing as she surveyed her temporary domain with
pleasure. It was a little piece of heaven, and she was grateful to be able to do this for
her kids, in spite of the last eighteen months. She felt lucky to be there. She was smiling,
thinking about it and enjoying the peaceful moment, when a station wagon drove up the
driveway and stopped in front of the main house, a dozen feet from where Eugenia was
sitting, swinging gently.
Her smile broadened immediately when her daughter Daphne emerged from the car.
She looked like a cartoon of a balloon with pretty face and legs attached. She was
almost eight months pregnant with twins, with six weeks to go, due the week after her
sister’s wedding, and hoped she’d make it until then. Twins were likely to come early,
which would be all right too, and almost welcome. Daphne smiled as she made her way
to her mother, climbed the steps to the porch, and collapsed in a big wicker chair next to
the swing. She looked as though she would explode if she got any bigger. She’d been
shocked when she learned she was having twins, but now she thought it would be fun,
after she got the delivery behind her. Like her mother, she’d had easy pregnancies, for
her first child and even the twins so far. Eugenia was happy to see her, and Daphne was
smiling and a little out of breath.
Eugenia leaned over to kiss her. Daphne was twenty-eight years old with dark hair
in a braid down her back, big green eyes, and a tan from the summer in the Hamptons.
They’d been living there on her husband’s estate since the pandemic started. It had been
easy and relaxed and felt safe. They were planning to move back to the city after the
twins came, since the city seemed safe again and Tucker was starting nursery school in
September. They lived a few blocks from Eugenia’s apartment in an elegant town house
Phillip had bought when they married. But in the meantime, they were enjoying the
summer, and now her family’s visit for a week. It was the first time they would be
together since the pandemic started, and they were all looking forward to it, especially
Eugenia.
“How do you feel?” Eugenia asked her.
“Huge. If I drop something now, I can’t pick it up. If I did, I’d probably fall over and
never be able to get up.” Daphne laughed, but she looked happy and relaxed. “They feel
like baby elephants.” They knew that the twins were fraternal, a boy and a girl, so she
and Phillip would have two sons and a daughter. And fraternal twins were hereditary.
Umberto vaguely remembered twins somewhere in his family tree, but couldn’t
remember who. Phillip and Daphne were delighted, and Eugenia was happy for them.
“When is everyone arriving?” Daphne asked, pleased to have her mother nearby for a
week, and then again for the week of Gloria’s wedding before Labor Day. Although
Eugenia always firmly insisted that she had no favorites, she and Daphne had the easiest
relationship, the most in common, and were closest, now that all her children were
adults.
Daphne had such a stable carefree life, because of Phillip and a solid marriage, that
her life was less stressful than that of the others, and she was a good-natured, upbeat
person. Phillip took care of everything for her, and his main goal in life was to protect,
love, and please her. Eugenia had no worries about her. Sofia was content in her life
too, although it was very different. But Eugenia wasn’t as sure about the others. Stefano
was wound very tightly, very driven and ambitious, and always seemed tense to her, and
Liz pushed him hard too. Eloise was perennially anxious and extremely stressed by her
career. Gloria appeared to be heading toward a potential disaster with her choice of
husband, but Eugenia knew there was nothing she could do about it. At least Daphne and
Sofia seemed to have found their niches in life, which was something. Hopefully, the
others would get there too.
“Eloise’s plane from Paris lands at eleven,” Eugenia answered. “With baggage,
customs, and the drive here, I figure she’ll be here around two-thirty if the plane is on
time. Sofia’s plane from Memphis lands at one, so she could get here about an hour after
Eloise. Gloria and Geoff said they would be here in time for dinner. And I don’t know
what time Stef and Liz are leaving to drive up from the city. He said they both had work
to finish.”
“That sounds like him,” Daphne said easily, admiring the property around them.
There were three gardeners tending to the lawn and flowerbeds. “What about you,
Mom? Can you take a break while you’re here?” It was no secret that Stefano and
Eloise got their intense work ethic from their mother. Daphne had worked at a magazine
briefly before she married Phillip but had no aspirations to have a career. Eugenia was
always working, either sketching or in meetings on the phone, lately more so with
attorneys and accountants.
“I’m planning to take the week off,” she assured Daphne.
“Until Gloria arrives with another thousand requests and changes for the wedding of
the century,” Daphne commented. She had had a beautiful wedding four years before,
and was far more relaxed than her sister was now. The wedding had seemed like an
additional joy for Phillip and Daphne, not the be-all and end-all it was to Gloria and
Geoff, as though they had to prove something and validate their relationship by how
elaborate their wedding was. It added an additional layer of stress to everything about
it, and made it much less enjoyable to plan with her. They were all tired of hearing
about it. It was all Gloria had talked about for a year. And Geoff wasn’t shy about
wanting the best and most expensive of everything, as if to prove how important he was,
as long as Eugenia was paying for it. And he never stopped talking about all the fancy
aristocrats on his parents’ guest list.
“Gloria texted me last week to ask if I would consider wearing a special matron of
honor dress,” Daphne said with a grin. “She said she was sure you wouldn’t mind
making one for me. I told her it would have to be made by the same people who are
making the tent, and no, I don’t want one. With any luck, the twins’ll come early, and I
can actually wear something human scale, and not a circus tent,” she said with a sigh.
“Don’t do anything silly to provoke it,” Eugenia warned her.
“I won’t. I’ll come over after dinner tonight to see everyone. Phillip said he’d drive
me. He doesn’t want me driving at night anymore. I can hardly get behind the wheel
anyway. My arms aren’t long enough.”
“He’s right,” her mother confirmed, “and it won’t be long now.”
“I don’t know how you did it five times in five years,” Daphne said admiringly.
“This is only my second time, and I’m not sure I’d do it again. Three children might be
enough. I love Tucker madly, but I feel like the whole last year has revolved around my
belly. It seems much longer than last time.”
“I never had twins,” Eugenia reminded her, “and I don’t know how I did it. I was on
a roll. I was young, although you are too. Your father wanted lots of children, and I
thought I could manage it. It was a major juggling act with work, though,” and Umberto
never lifted a finger to help her. Italian princes didn’t, and he was in his fifties by the
time Sofia was born. He was not about to change diapers or take the children to the park
to play. He liked showing them off in their matching outfits before a dinner party, but not
much else, and never for more than a few minutes.
“I couldn’t do this if I had a career too. I don’t know how you did, and with a big,
demanding career in fashion too.”
“Oscar was very understanding when I worked for him. And I just managed
somehow. I was crazy about all of you so it seemed worth it, and I was pretty well
organized.” Eugenia knew that Phillip didn’t do a great deal more than Umberto had,
and was also twenty-two years older than Daphne, having just turned fifty. But he
provided Daphne with all the help she wanted, which made things easier, and he was
great with their three-year-old son, and would undoubtedly be with the twins too. They
were a sweet family. It warmed Eugenia’s heart to see them together.
“That’s why Eloise always says she doesn’t want kids. She says she can’t have
children and a career, and it’s too stressful as it is, with only her career,” Daphne said.
“She might change her mind later, if she meets the right man,” Eugenia commented.
“I’m not so sure. She’s so anxious about her job all the time, I don’t think she could
manage kids too. I think Stef and Liz feel the same way. Liz is a lot more interested in
her job than having children, and they think the planet is too screwed up and
overcrowded to bring more humans into the world.” Stefano was thirty-one, and Liz
was five years older at thirty-six. Her biological clock not only wasn’t ticking, it wasn’t
making a sound. Neither of them wanted children so far. And Eugenia felt it was entirely
up to them.
All of Eugenia’s children were so different. None of them had taken on the
challenges she had, with a mammoth business and career and five children. She wasn’t
sure anymore if she would do it again, but she was glad she had. She hadn’t even
remotely guessed what a huge stress it could be if something went wrong with the
business. She hadn’t foreseen it, few had. Nor had she understood at twenty-three or
even twenty-nine what an overwhelming responsibility it was being the parent of five
adults with problems and needs and crises of their own, with only one parent to guide
them, because of an absentee father who was only interested in going to parties and
playing prince for his entire life. She had taken a lot on, and managed it, but she was
paying a high price for it in the quality of her life now, which Daphne seemed to
understand better than the others. She worried about her mother and all she was
carrying, and she didn’t know the half of it, but she could guess. The others thought of
themselves more than they did their mother. That was the nature of children until their
parents got too old to take care of themselves and became a burden to them—a time in
her life that Eugenia dreaded, and had never thought of until now, especially if she lost
everything and couldn’t support herself, which seemed like a real possibility. She was
going to do everything humanly possible to avoid having that happen.
Daphne left shortly before lunchtime, in order to have lunch with Phillip and Tucker,
as she did on most days. She had an exceedingly pleasant, low-stress life. She couldn’t
wait to see her siblings that evening.
After she left, Eugenia checked her emails and answered the most pressing ones. She
was trying to buy more denim, which was hard to get, in case the pieces in her show
were a hit and she got a lot of orders for them. She knew more about denim now than
she ever had. Japanese denim was considered the most high-quality and desirable, with
the most body to it. She had put several denim pantsuits in the next show, which were
exactly what women wanted now, and hers had a high fashion look. Haute couture jeans.
Eugenia smiled as she finished her emails and went to meet the chef she had hired for
the week, who turned out to be an enterprising young Frenchwoman who was delighted
to hear the list of favorite meals Eugenia wanted for them. She was going to prepare
lunch and dinner every day, except for the nights they went out.
Eugenia took a quick swim in the pool, and was just getting out and drying off when
she heard a car on the gravel driveway, and looked over a hedge to see a black Cadillac
SUV stop in front of the house, and a chic young woman jumped out. She had long blond
hair like Eugenia, and was wearing head-to-toe black, with jeans and a black cotton
blouse, and carrying a large black alligator bag. Eloise looked very French and she was
wearing a wide gold cuff on each arm. She was smoking, and looked pale and nervous,
but she was undeniably fashionable and very beautiful.
Eugenia called out to her and ran to meet her, wrapped in a towel, with her hair wet,
and Eloise grinned broadly and gave her an enormous hug when they collided.
“How was the flight?” her mother asked her, so pleased to see her. They had only
seen each other once during the pandemic, and the week together would be a gift. Eloise
had been very close to her mother growing up, but had lived in Paris now for eight
years, since she had graduated from Parsons, like her mother, and in Eloise’s case, she
moved to Paris and stayed there. She had been working for Balenciaga designing
streetwear and had made a name for herself. She and Eugenia usually saw each other
during Paris Fashion Week, but there had been none for almost two years now. Eloise
was rail-thin, like a model herself, looked the most similar to her mother of all the
children, and was proud of it. She admired her mother and thought she was talented and
gorgeous. She was a hard act to follow, particularly since they were in the same field.
She wasn’t jealous of her mother. Eugenia was her role model.
“I slept the whole way. It’s been crazy. I was exhausted,” a standard response for
Eloise. Her life was constantly high pressure, working for a major luxury brand.
Eugenia showed her to her room, next to her own, and the driver brought up her four
bags, and Eugenia already knew that every outfit in them would be black and killer chic
and very fashion-forward. Eloise’s face clouded immediately as soon as they were
alone.
“I think they’re going to fire me, Mom,” she said, on the verge of tears. “Business
has been terrible in Europe until they started letting Americans into the country again a
few weeks ago. Our stores in Asia have been saving us, and keeping us afloat. But
they’re talking about severe cutbacks, and I’m sure I’ll be on that list.” Eugenia smiled,
looking at her. Eloise was even taller than her mother and a beautiful young woman,
despite the anxious expression. Eugenia had heard it all before.
“You’ve been saying that since they hired you. They need you. They’re not going to
fire you.” Eugenia was sure of it. Fashion was a cutthroat business, but Eloise had a
huge talent and her job was secure.
“This time I think they are. I hate the new director of marketing and he hates me. He
says my vision isn’t global enough, and too traditional.”
“They’ll probably fire him before they fire you. Can you try to relax for a week?”
Eugenia asked her gently, and Eloise nodded hesitantly. She lived on the edge of her
nerves, and she was anxious every hour of every day in an extremely stressful job. She
paid a high price for her success. She hardly ever had dates, and most of the time, when
she did, she canceled them. She worked nights and weekends, smoked a lot, and had no
life except work. Eugenia wanted so much more for her than the narrow life she led, but
it was hard to pry Eloise out of her office and away from her drawing board and desk.
“Are you hungry?” She knew the answer before she said the words. Eloise was never
hungry, she was too nervous to eat, and her image of the ideal female body was based
on the models she saw every day, who all looked like they were starving. Eloise was as
thin and undernourished as they were.
“I ate on the plane,” she said, which Eugenia knew was a lie to get her mother off
her back. “Who’s here?”
“You’re the first.”
Eloise and Daphne were the closest of the sisters and Eloise couldn’t wait to see her
next younger sister. “No babies yet?” she asked, smiling.
“Not for another five weeks, unless the twins come early. The poor thing is
enormous. She can’t wait to see you, she’s coming over tonight. The others should all be
here by dinnertime.”
After she settled in, they went to sit by the pool, with Eloise in a black bikini that
showed off her remarkable body. She went to the gym at five in the morning before
work every day, and as thin as she was, every inch of her was toned and sleek. She was
thirty, and had the body of a twenty-year-old. They were chatting about the current
trends, and her mother’s experimental line of daywear in the next show, when another
SUV pulled up, and a tall, very handsome Black man with broad shoulders and an
athlete’s build got out. He was strikingly attractive, and Eugenia’s youngest daughter,
Sofia, got out right behind him. She looked tiny next to him and they were talking and
laughing. Sofia was the smallest of the sisters with very dark brown hair, porcelain
white skin, and green eyes. She was wearing an army surplus camouflage vest with
cutoff jeans and military boots she’d gotten at Goodwill. Her hair was in a braid down
her back, as Daphne wore hers. All Eugenia knew about Sofia’s date was that he was a
doctor where she worked, and he looked far more respectable than she did. He looked
like a Ralph Lauren ad.
Eloise and Eugenia walked toward them with welcoming smiles. Sofia’s companion
was wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt, with loafers. Sofia looked like a runaway
teenager he had picked up as a hitchhiker. She was twenty-six years old, and a licensed
nurse practitioner and midwife. They both worked at a medical center in Tennessee,
which sent teams of personnel into the poorest areas of Appalachia, and Sofia loved her
work. Eugenia was impressed that she had brought a man home to her family, knowing
he would be the object of the intense scrutiny of her sisters. She had never brought
anyone home before, or even said who she was dating. This was a first.
The man turned a wide dazzling smile on Eugenia and Eloise, shook hands with
them, and introduced himself as Brad Jackson. Sofia hugged her mother and Eugenia
invited them to have a cold drink on the porch before she took them to their house. The
two sisters chatted while Brad thanked their mother for the invitation.
“Did everything go all right on the trip?” Eugenia asked them, as they all sat down
for a few minutes.
“It was fine, except we had a tornado in the mountains last week, and I wasn’t sure
we could come. It flattened a lot of the shacks people are living in and caused a bunch
of babies to come early, and there were a lot of people injured. We both haven’t
stopped for a week,” Sofia said, and Brad nodded. “Brad is a trauma surgeon and he
operates in a first responders’ truck sometimes.” She clearly admired him, and they
exchanged a warm look that touched Eugenia when she saw it. They chatted for a few
minutes, discovered that he had trained at NYU, was originally from Chicago, and his
father was a cardiac surgeon. Sofia had said that he was thirty-five years old. Eugenia
wondered what Brad’s family would have thought of Sofia’s ragtag outfit and combat
boots. But Brad didn’t seem to mind.
They were ecstatic when they saw the guesthouse she’d assigned them, and she left
them to unpack and settle in. Brad handed Eugenia a large box of French chocolates he
had bought at the airport, and she thanked him.
Eloise dropped into her mother’s bedroom when she heard her come in.
“Wow, he’s a good-looking guy, and more sophisticated than her usual men. He
seems nice.” Eloise smiled at her mother.
“I like him,” Eugenia said quietly. “A hell of a lot more than Geoffrey,” she said
with a sigh. She hated Geoffrey’s pretentiousness; she could never understand how
Gloria could stand it.
“Of course, he’s educated, intelligent, handsome, nice, and comes from an educated
family. What’s not to like? They’re probably a lot more respectable than we are, even if
his father isn’t a lord,” Eloise said with a grin. “We have to get Sofia some decent
clothes to wear.”
“Brad doesn’t seem to care,” her mother commented. And if he loved Sofia for who
she was as a person, that was good enough for her.
“Is he coming to the wedding?” Eloise asked.
“I have no idea. I didn’t ask her. And she hasn’t said,” Eugenia responded.
“Let’s see how he survives this week,” Eloise said with a mischievous expression.
“He’s brave to come for a vacation with a woman with three sisters.”
“They’ll be fine,” Eugenia said optimistically, and Stefano and Liz arrived as she
said it. They’d come in their own car and Liz had more luggage than Eloise, but Eugenia
knew that everything she’d brought would be short and tight, either in gold or with
rhinestones on it, and cutouts in frightening places, worn with six-inch heels. Liz was a
businesswoman and a smart one, but she dressed like a chorus girl. She tried to
compensate for what she lacked in taste by overdressing for every occasion, which
always made Eloise wince. She was the resident fashion police for all of them, even for
her mother. The others didn’t care as much. Eloise was a purist about fashion and style,
and always said that Liz’s wardrobe gave her anxiety. It all had glitter on it. They were
going to see a lot of it for the next week.
Stef and Liz loved their little guesthouse.
Everyone gathered on the porch of the main house at the end of the day. Liz and Stef
met Brad then, and the two men engaged in conversation immediately. Brad liked every
member of the family he had met so far, and they liked him. He was knowledgeable
about wines, sports, art, and music, and Sofia looked proud of the man she had brought
home. Eugenia could see that she was crazy about him, which was why she had invited
him.
They were enjoying a lively conversation when Gloria and Geoff arrived, looking
tired and bedraggled from the trip. Geoff complained about the flight, the car service,
and the driver before he even greeted anyone. Eugenia had flown them business class
and hired a driver to get them to the Hamptons, and he didn’t thank her. He had an aura
of entitlement that made Eloise’s skin crawl, and everyone tried to ignore it for Gloria’s
sake. Geoff had had to have a Covid test before leaving London and another one at the
airport on arrival, and proof of vaccination, which annoyed him and he grumbled about
that too.
Brad was very quiet as he listened to Geoff complain, and he watched the family’s
reaction with interest. Eugenia looked pained, Eloise looked furious, Stefano ignored
him, and Sofia rolled her eyes, while Gloria tried to calm him down. Geoff paid no
attention to them and Eugenia took him quickly to their guesthouse to drop off their bags
and clean up before dinner. The driver carried their bags in and Geoff didn’t lift a finger
to help, or thank him as the driver set down their bags and left. Gloria always explained
his frequent moodiness and outbursts by saying he was tired, like a child. He was
incredibly spoiled. He firmly believed that being the son of an earl allowed him to be
as rude as he wanted.
“Who was that?” he asked Gloria about Brad, as they changed for dinner.
“My sister Sofia’s new boyfriend. He seems nice.”
“Is he coming to the wedding?” Geoff asked her.
“I have no idea. Sofia hasn’t asked me. Is that a problem?” she asked him directly.
“I don’t care. But it might be for my parents. They’re not as open-minded as your
family.”
“My mother won’t like that. If he’s dating Sofia, he’ll be invited,” Gloria said
firmly. She sounded definite about it, and Geoff shrugged and went to take a shower.
—
After Geoff and Gloria went to change, Sofia groaned and sounded like a teenager when
she asked her mother, “Do I have to change for dinner?” Eloise rolled her eyes when
she asked the question. “I didn’t bring anything fancy.”
“You don’t need to wear anything fancy,” her mother reassured her, “just clean jeans,
and maybe something a little less military,” she said gently, referring to the knee-high
combat boots.
“Come upstairs with me and I’ll lend you something,” Eloise volunteered.
“I’ll look like I’m going to a funeral,” Sofia grumbled. “Everything you own is
black.”
“At least you won’t look like you enlisted in the Marines,” Eloise shot back at her.
“Never mind. I’ll figure it out,” Sofia said, and left with Brad. He put an arm around
her and gave her a hug and a kiss as they walked back to their cottage. Eugenia smiled
as she watched them. They made a nice couple, he was intelligent and pleasant, and
Sofia said he was an exceptional doctor.
“I like him so much more than Geoff,” Eugenia said to Eloise when they were
dressing for dinner, and Eloise wandered into her room as her mother was doing her
makeup.
“Is Geoff going to be a problem?” Eloise asked her mother.
“I’m not sure. He’s a problem about everything.”
“I hope Gloria can calm him down and shut him up, or I will. He’s so damn rude and
so entitled. He doesn’t appreciate anything you do for them,” Eloise said. They went
downstairs to join the others then.
Sofia had miraculously produced a pair of white jeans with torn-out knees from her
suitcase, an oversized man’s bowling shirt she’d bought at a vintage shop in Nashville,
and high-top pink sneakers, which were an improvement over the combat boots. Eloise
rolled her eyes again. She was wearing a very pretty black cotton Alaia sundress and
black high-heeled sandals that laced up her legs. Eugenia was wearing white jeans
herself, with a pink patterned silk Hermès shirt and gold sandals. Gloria was wearing a
white skirt and white T-shirt, and Liz was wearing a backless white dress with
rhinestone trim and silver high heels. The men all wore white or normal jeans, Stefano
with a collared blue shirt, Geoff a blue-striped T-shirt, and Brad a crisp white collared
shirt with normal jeans. He didn’t seem to mind Sofia’s eccentric vintage wardrobe and
looked totally besotted with her. They were constantly talking or whispering to each
other, smiling and laughing.
They seated themselves at dinner, and everyone seemed relaxed, until Eugenia
realized halfway through dinner that Geoff never spoke to anyone. He avoided
conversation and appeared to be sulking for some unknown reason. Brad didn’t seem to
notice, and spoke to Stef and Liz and Eloise all through dinner. No one seemed eager to
talk to Geoff.
The meal was delicious. They had local lobster and crab, with a very decent French
white wine, and they were all in high spirits and having fun by the time Phillip and
Daphne showed up in time for coffee and dessert. Daphne looked enormous in a pretty
pale blue cotton dress that somehow made her look even bigger, but lovely, and Phillip
was wearing white jeans, a white Hermès shirt, and a blazer, and looked like a
grownup. Everyone was happy to see them. Stefano and the sisters all kissed each other,
and no one could ignore the size of the twins.
“Oh my God, you look like you’re having triplets, or quadruplets,” Eloise said to her
favorite sister. Sofia introduced Phillip and Daphne to Brad, and Daphne gave him a
warm welcome, as did Phillip. Only Geoff had not spoken to anyone all evening, but the
conversation was lively enough to cover it. Eugenia was annoyed by Geoff’s lack of
effort and communication. He acted as though no one at the table was quite good enough
for him, as if they were all beneath him. Gloria made an effort to compensate and spoke
to Brad through most of dinner, since she was sitting next to him.
Eloise made a comment to Gloria when they left the dinner table. Of all the siblings,
they were the two who got along the least well, and sparks between them were not
uncommon. The others were used to it.
“You should tell your fiancé to make a little more effort to be congenial with
everyone, for Mom’s sake. We’re all guests here,” she said under her breath. “Brad is a
great guy, and it’s not fair to Mom or Sofia to ignore him or make him uncomfortable.
Geoff needs to act like an adult and talk to all of us. You may be willing to put up with
his moods, but that’s not how we do things on Mom’s time. We’re all here to have fun
together.” She didn’t say that Brad was ten times the man Geoff was, and that they all
already liked Brad a lot better. At the end of the meal, Geoff had regaled them with
boring stories of his family history, how blue his blood was, and how important his
grandfather had been, which no one cared about. Brad was a great deal funnier, far more
modest, a lot smarter, and nicer to be around. And Sofia had blossomed since she’d
been with him. Everyone liked Brad, which Geoff couldn’t stand. Geoff hated it when
anyone else got the attention or was in the limelight. He acted like a spoiled child, and
Gloria indulged him, which Eugenia thought was a grave mistake and gave him bad
habits for the future. And it annoyed Eloise that they were about to get stuck with Geoff
forever. She couldn’t understand how her sister could stand him, and he was a bore on
top of it.
Geoff and Gloria went to their guesthouse immediately after dinner, and the others
sat around, drinking and talking and laughing until well after midnight, as Eugenia
watched them with pleasure. No matter what it cost her to pay for the vacation, this was
what life was all about, and worth every penny.
