Taking the opportunity to glance around the room before she was noticed, Eve took in all the familiar faces. Some had grown older and more fragile looking.
Her aunt Louisa, Gerald’s wife, sat looking nervous in the chair closest to her husband. The woman was never too far from her husband and, growing up, Eve had imagined that the woman’s spine had been permanently fused to her husband’s. Her dark brown hair had been styled and cut short, a change since Eve had seen her last. The fact that she was wearing stylish clothes didn’t surprise Eve. The woman’s tastes had always gravitated to the expensive.
Their son, Logan, Eve’s twenty-five-year-old cousin, sat in the corner, watching something on his phone. The dark-haired man’s long legs dangled over the chair, much like a teenager would sit.
Liv, his sister, who was two years younger than her brother, was busy looking at her own phone. Her short, bleach-blond curls fell in front of her perfect face.
Both her cousins looked like their parents. Logan looked like his mother, where Liv looked like her uncle and grandfather, even with her recent nose and boob job.
The family was the epitome of perfection, down to her cousin’s perfectly painted toenails sticking out of her high-heeled sandals.
The family was dressed as if heading out for a night in the city, rather than sitting around the inn, a place they called home, fighting with family members.
Eve’s great-aunt Ramona, sister to her grandfather, was sitting in a rocking chair, a large walker next to her as she looked nervously on over the fight. The woman had been old when Eve had been young, and now she looked ancient. Ramona was the only one besides Reggie who had been nice to her growing up. Her clothes were a little more practical, yet Eve had never seen her aunt in anything except dresses and dress shoes. Eve chalked it up to growing up in a different era.
Her uncle, Roger, was sitting next to his wife, Regina. The man wore a suit, like the rest of the men in the room. Regina was the diva in the family.
She was dressed in the latest Paris styles, her long blond hair flowing around her shoulders and a pair of designer sunglasses blocking her eyes from the rest of the room as she sipped what was most likely Scotch from a glass. Her crossed legs swayed to an internal tune or with irritation. Eve could never tell with the woman.
Regina had been an accomplished interior designer before she’d married Roger and become a full-time mother to their son, Steve, who was now a thirty-nine-year-old man-child. The oldest of the grandchildren, he had in the past few years demanded everyone call him by the name Fray.
Steve looked the same as he had when Eve had left. He wore the same board shorts and tank top. His long blond hair was tied in a low ponytail and was way too thin, which only showcased a growing bald spot on his crown. A platinum-blond woman was sitting on his lap in very tight shorts and a tank top that kept slipping down her tan shoulders, almost exposing her very ample breasts. The pair were, as with her other cousins, totally engrossed in their phones.
Eve’s mother finally stepped between her father and her uncle.
“Enough.” Her mother, Grace Candlewood, put a hand to Eve’s father’s chest and nudged him aside.
“There’s no use arguing. The lawyer made it very clear. Only those on the list are to attend the reading of the will.”
It was then that she caught her mother’s eye. Her mother hadn’t changed much. She was sporting a new longer hairstyle, which she still dyed a deep brown with hints of caramel highlights.
Eve had her mother’s eyes and hair. Eve had stopped highlighting her hair after the divorce in order to save money.
Her mother was also dressed to impress, making Eve wish she’d changed out of the worn jeans and sweatshirt she’d pulled on before leaving her apartment.
“Evelyn, you’re here.” Her mother crossed the room and kissed each of Eve’s cheek as if they were old friends meeting for brunch. Eve had cried for almost an hour before she’d packed up and left her apartment. She’d cried in private so she wouldn’t cry in front of her family. Still, her eyes burned at the missing person in the room. Her grandfather, Reggie.
“Mom,” she said calmly back. It wasn’t as if they were on bad terms, she just knew how to deal with her family. The ten people sitting in the drawing room were some of the most selfish people Eve had ever known. Almost as bad as Brent had been.
“It’s about time,” her cousin, Steve added. “Can we go now?”
“Go?” Eve looked at her mother as she pulled away.
“Yes, dear, we were supposed to meet the lawyer”—she glanced down at her watch— “half an hour ago.”
“Lawyer?” Eve shook her head. “Why?”
“To go over Dad’s will,” Gerald added. “All of us.”
“Not everyone’s invited,” her father said
“Screw off,” her uncle replied. “Everyone’s going. I’ll make Jon kick us all out.”
“But,” she started. “Grandpa?” She shook her head.
“Oh, they came and removed him hours ago.” Her mother waved her hand, then wiped her nose with a tissue. “It will be a few days before we can bury him. For now, the lawyer wants to go over his will while we’re all here.”
Eve swallowed. She’d never been around death before. Did things normally go this fast? Wasn’t there a mourning period?
Then she glanced around at the eager faces in the room and knew that it wasn’t the lawyer wanting to go over the will this soon. It was her family.
Knowing better than to argue with them, she allowed herself to be shuffled into her parents’ car and driven into town. Her eyes strayed to Holly’s old house, but the sexy man was nowhere to be seen. The table saw still sat in the driveway along with a fresh stack of timber.
The family carpooled down to the small office that housed her grandfather’s oldest friend and one of the only lawyers on the island, Jon Barber.
“Mom, do we have to do this now?” she asked, feeling weary from the long drive and the sleepless night worrying about the stupid job that she no longer had.
“It won’t take long,” her mother said, getting out of the car.
Eve followed everyone inside the man’s small office and was instantly confronted with another argument between her uncle and father.
“I told you we all wouldn’t fit. Jon told us only the four of us had to come,” her father said.
“There’s standing room.” Her uncle shoved his wide body into a small space between a file cabinet and a printer. “See,” Gerald added with a smile.
“Jon, we’re all here. Let’s make this quick before this place heats up with all these bodies in it,” her father added.
Eve was once again standing and leaning against a back wall, crammed into another room full of people she didn’t really care for. Only this time, she knew there wasn’t anything here for her.
Whatever her grandfather’s will said, she knew that her family was bound to get it all. Besides, she didn’t want anything. She would much rather have her grandfather back and send everyone off with their wealth.
That thought made her smile slightly. Spending time with her grandfather had always been her greatest joy. He’d taught her how to fish, how to sail, even how to cook. Somehow, her memories were full of times with the older man, more so than with her own parents. When she’d struggled with algebra, it had been her grandfather who had sat with her and patiently helped her through the worst of it. He’d been the one to help her fill out her college applications and study for her SATs.