As You Wish (The Summerhouse 3)

“Speaking of which, how did your family take your marriage?” Kathy asked.

Elise snorted. “After Kent got Dad out of jail, he thought it might be a good idea to listen to what all of us had to say. But then, Kent was threatening to leave Dad in there if he didn’t.”

“Jail? I can’t wait to hear this.” Olivia looked at Kathy. “And what about you? Are you okay?”

“Better than I thought possible.”

“I want to know what happened to Andy,” Elise said to Kathy as she opened the door. “I want—” She broke off as she looked about the house. When they were in it before, everything had been so perfectly, professionally laid out.

Now the house had that lived-in feeling that a family gave it. There were still art objects from the world, but they were interspersed with cheap trinkets and many photos of laughing people.

Elise picked up a picture of three good-looking young men. “Wow! Who are these beautiful creatures?”

“My sons.” Olivia’s tone told of her deep, deep love for them.

“I want to hear every word,” Elise said. “From both

of you.” She looked at Kathy. “How’s Ray?”

“Married to Rita, thanks to me. And you know what? She gained so much weight after her last baby that she’s bigger than I ever have been. But Ray is still mad about her and can’t keep his hands off of her.” She took a breath. “I learned that, contrary to all those diet people promising happiness if you just get a flat belly, love can’t be weighed. It isn’t given or denied based on the bathroom scale.”

Olivia and Elise were smiling at her.

Kathy looked at Olivia. “Did you get your ex with his mistress?”

“In a roundabout way, I did, but—” She looked at Elise’s pale face. “Let’s feed this young lady, then spend the rest of the day talking. I think we have a lot to tell.”

“Wait!” Kathy said, then looked at Elise. “I need to know something. Did you get pulled onto that black horse?”

“Oh yeah,” Elise said. “Repeatedly. Our son runs so fast that Alejandro says we made him on the back of that horse. I don’t think that’s true, but there was that one time when...” She trailed off dreamily.

Olivia put her hands on Elise’s back and pushed her toward the kitchen. “Food first, then stories.”

Chapter Thirty

When the women were settled, there was a mutual agreement that Elise should go first and she had them laughing about walking in front of Alejandro in her underwear.

Her story took hours. The best part was at the end, when Elise finally stood up to her mother. The two mothers sat on a couch, the fathers in chairs, and Elise stood in front of them. Kent was beside his wife. For the first time, he was on Elise’s side. Come what may, he’d decided to take a stand. “When you two were in college,” Elise said, “you concocted a plan that you’d marry men who were either rich or aristocratic, and you did so. Later, you decided that your kids would marry each other.” She used her height to loom over the two women. “Did you even once think about what Kent and I wanted?”

“You adored Kent,” Elise’s mother said.

“Probably because that’s the only thing I ever did that got approval from you.”

“We don’t have to listen to this,” Kent’s mother said, but he clamped a hand on her shoulder and made her sit there.

Since Elise’s father had spent three days in jail and was now facing possible prosecution for an attempted kidnapping, his attitude had changed. He sat quietly and listened.

Elise went on with her tirade. She told all four of the parents that they had to give up their snobbish racism or they were going to lose their only children.

She didn’t dare look at Kent when she said that because he was still terrified of losing his job. He wanted it all, the money and Carmen. As for Elise, she was so happy with her new life she could walk away from them and their money—and they knew that.

In the end, the parents conceded. Carmen and Kent were going to move into the house on the property of the parents and Kent was allowed to keep his job. But then, unlike his father, he was an asset to the business.

The parents offered to buy Elise and Alejandro a big house nearby, but they declined.

She knew that taking it would put them under obligation to her parents. And besides, she knew them. Her mother would show up every day with “suggestions” about how Elise should live her life.

After a lot of talk, she and Alejandro, Diego and his wife and children, and three of their employees, decided they were going to move to Fort Lauderdale so they’d have year-round work.