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‘And did she walk on water as well?’ Rosa muttered as she looked through her list.
‘Sorry?’ Sancia asked, thankfully unable to make out the words.
‘Did they do all that alone?’ Rosa asked, instead of repeating her original question.
‘Well, Anna’s got a whole lot of extra staff coming in this week to help finish it off. But she’s organised it all—and been out there with her paintbrush doing more than her fair share!’
Guilt gnawed at Rosa. ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, Mama.’
‘It’s fine.’ Sancia patted her shoulder. ‘You were busy. I understood. And so did your sister.’
That part, Rosa found harder to believe. Even harder than picturing pristine St Anna with a paintbrush in hand.
‘Well, she’s left me plenty to do to make up for it, anyway.’ Rosa stared down at the list again. Then she turned it over so she didn’t have to look at it any more. ‘So, tell me all about this wedding.’
And why on earth it’s sending this whole island into general insanity.
* * *
Twenty minutes later, Rosa had her answers. She just didn’t like them very much.
‘So, when you called and said that there was a wedding booking on the island, what you failed to mention was that it was a five-star, luxury, last-minute wedding for Internet sensation and supermodel Valentina, whose every move is documented online to millions of fans.’ A wedding like this could make or break La Isla Marina for the foreseeable future. If they could live up to Valentina’s expectations, the resort would be fully booked for years. But if they screwed it up...
That didn’t bear thinking about.
Sancia smiled. ‘Anna says it’s a great opportunity. Apparently Valentina is very popular.’
Understatement. Even in the middle of a South American rainforest, Rosa hadn’t been able to avoid Valentina’s doings. ‘She’s about as famous as Jude is.’
Sancia’s expression turned curious. ‘Jude is famous?’
Oh, honestly. How was she supposed to work like this?
‘Just take my word for it, Mama.’ She thought about Jude, unrecognised and playing Scrabble with her father. He was hiding. Even if he hadn’t fully admitted it yet. ‘And maybe don’t mention the fact that he’s here to anyone, okay?’
‘Of course. But Rosa...can you do all these things Anna has asked?’ Sancia chewed on her lip, nervously. Because only St Anna could be useful and take care of the family business, right? Only Anna was reliable and dependable—never mind that Sancia had no time at all for those traits usually. Now that she was in trouble, of course it was Anna that she needed. Not Rosa.
‘I think I can manage a little bit of organisation, for once,’ she said, drily. ‘Don’t worry about it, Mama. I’ve got you covered.’
She resisted the impulse to look back down at the list and wince. How hard could it be, really? Arranging hotel rooms and putting up decorations was hardly the same as trekking miles through war zones or eluding border patrols, now, was it?
‘Oh, good.’ Sancia’s face relaxed into its usual smiling countenance. ‘Then how about I go and fetch you some wine? And some dinner—you must be starving after your journey!’
Rosa knew it wouldn’t have mattered what time of day she’d arrived, Sancia would still assume she needed feeding. And a glass of wine. Today though, she wasn’t wrong. However, there were a few other things she needed to get straight first.
‘In a moment, Mama. You never explained what Dad is doing here.’ Rosa remembered what life had been like with both her parents in the same house as a child, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to experience it again. For years, Sancia had lived life her way—ignoring her husband’s requests for more order in their lives. She’d picked up new creative hobbies that had covered the house in paint or pottery, and brought new friends home to open their lounge up for art classes or book groups. And through it all, Ernest’s only comments would be to stay out of his study and clear up after themselves. Rosa wondered, sometimes, if some of the crazier ideas Sancia had come up with—like the midnight picnic in the garden, with fairy lights and music, or the time she’d repainted the whole house yellow, or the last-minute road trip across the country with no preparation or, as it turned out after the first fifty miles, petrol—had just been attempts to get her husband to pay attention to her, for once.
If they had been, they hadn’t worked. Even when she’d left, Rosa’s father had just increased the time he’d spent at his college, and let Anna take over.
So why was he here, now? And...was Sancia blushing? Really? Rosa was fairly sure her mother had never been embarrassed by anything ever—she just wasn’t that sort of person.
Yeah, there was definitely something odd going on here.
‘Is it something to do with the wedding?’ Rosa pressed. ‘Or the island? Is the resort in trouble?’ If things were really bad, maybe Sancia had needed to call in the big guns—not just the responsible daughter, but also the ex-husband who’d tried to structure their family lives together to the point of insanity, while Sancia had fought to keep them spontaneous and freeform, until the day she’d left.
Of course, then Anna had taken over organising Rosa’s life, so it wasn’t as if it had made all that much difference.
But for Mama to call Dad now...
‘That’s not it at all,’ Sancia replied, sounding affronted. Rosa had never been very good at treading carefully around other people’s feelings. She suspected it might be a family trait.
‘Then why is he here? I mean, now, after all this time?’ It had been a full decade since Sancia had left the family home in Oxford. Of course, that was supposed to just be for a holiday—at least, that was what she had told them. And knowing Sancia as Rosa did, she’d probably believed it herself, at the time.
But a holiday had turned into an extended stay—to help her parents out with the resort, all perfectly understandable.
Except for the part where she’d never come home again.
Rosa wasn’t even sure her parents had ever officially divorced. It would be just like her mother to leave things completely up in the air as far as officialdom was concerned. And just like her father to refuse to do anything to agree to a situation he hadn’t planned for.
They were both as bad as each other, in some ways.
‘Your father knew that Anna was here helping me, and he was worried about me,’ Sancia said, in such a defensive way that Rosa knew it couldn’t be the whole truth.
‘And?’ she pressed.
‘And apparently his cardiologist might have suggested that it was a good idea, too,’ Sancia admitted.
‘His cardiologist?’ That horrible, guilty feeling was back, clenching around her own heart, as she remembered that last argument with Anna. The one that had started out being about their father’s health, and ended up being about them, and all the ways they were just too different to ever have that sisterly relationship Rosa had once believed just came from having the same parents.
Of course, since their parents were complete opposites, perhaps it stood to reason that their daughters would be, too.
‘Apparently some sun, sea and relaxation are just what he needs—and, of course, La Isla Marina is perfect for that!’
Sun and sea Rosa could agree with. Relaxation seemed an awful long way off right now.
‘And you look like you could use some of the same.’ Sancia frowned at her youngest daughter, before giving her a little shove towards the door. ‘Go on. You go and be nice to our guests, and I’ll bring out some food and wine for you all. It’ll be a party!’
The headache forming behind Rosa’s eyes told her that the last thing she needed was wine, or to spend any more time with the father who had never understood her, or the one man who maybe could have, if she hadn’t walked out on him.
But Sancia in hospitality
mode was a force to be reckoned with, so it appeared that Rosa didn’t have any other choice.
