“Anytime. I love you, Nat.”
“I love you, too, Mom. Talk to you soon.”
Cece hung up and set her phone down, heaving out a sigh of relief. She’d have to let Maude know that she no longer needed help with her son-in-law.
Chapter Eighteen
The two small casseroles in Essie’s oven filled the entire house with such delicious aromas that her stomach started to growl. With a laugh, she looked down at her midsection. “That’s not for you.”
Frank was on a business call in the small spare room that served as his office. Even with the door shut, she could hear snippets of the conversation, none of which made any sense to her. Something about projected units and upcoming reports and, sporadically, she heard Italy mentioned, but that she understood. The company had just opened a branch there and was experiencing some growing pains.
The good kind, Frank had reassured her.
But it was a reminder that he had enough going on without Essie bringing up Sophie’s nonsense. That’s what it was, too. Nonsense. So what if she didn’t like Essie. Sophie didn’t live with them, wasn’t Essie’s responsibility in any way, shape, or form, and Essie didn’t have to even see Sophie except for the occasional holiday.
Which meant it would probably be Thanksgiving before Essie had to be in the same room as her stepdaughter. The plan atthe moment, although nothing had been finalized, was to spend Thanksgiving at the cabin.
Essie poured herself a glass of iced tea and sat at the kitchen counter with her phone to wait out the cooking timer.
Sophie and Chad would come up to the cabin with their partners, whoever that might be for Sophie at the time. For Chad, it meant his wife, Tasha, and their two little ones. Frank would have the usual local place cater the meal.
It was exactly what they’d done last year. And it had been nice. But Liliana hadn’t come. She had her husband to think about and her two kids. It was too much for them to do all that traveling, especially when it would mean Mateo having to work his schedule out.
Mat, Liliana’s husband, was a police officer who hoped to soon make detective. Essie doubted he’d want to ask for any special favors around a holiday.
What would be nice was if this year, she and Frank could have Thanksgiving with Liliana and Mat and Essie’s two grandkids, who were now Frank’s step-grandkids.
She glanced toward the office. She knew he was occupied with his business and Thanksgiving was a long way off yet, but if the opportunity presented itself to plant the seed, Essie was going to take it.
Then when Italy was fully operational and Frank didn’t have so much on his mind, she’d bring it up in earnest.
Of course, Sophie would probably hate not spending Thanksgiving with her father. She’d undoubtedly see that as another attempt by Essie to ruin her life, or create a rift between them or whatever it was Sophie thought Essie was doing.
Essie sighed, mentally exhausted by it all. More and more it seemed like Sophie was one of those people who thrived on drama. Who could only function when she was the target,however real or perceived, of some alleged slight. The young woman apparently loved being the victim.
Essie had been around students like that. Most of them from well-to-do families where getting attention from the parents required creative thinking.
Sophie was a classic case of spoiled rich kid. Essie hated thinking that way about her husband’s child, but it was true.
How had Chad not turned out that way? He was so much like Frank. Chad never met a problem that wasn’t fixable. Trouble rolled off his back like water off a duck.
Sophie absorbed trouble like a sponge. Was she her mother’s child? Essie had never known Stacia, but Chad and Sophie (and sometimes Frank) spoke of her as though she’d been a saint.
Essie was starting to wonder how a kind, practical man like Frank and a supposed saint could raise a child like Sophie, who clearly thought the world owed her something.
Was it possible Stacia wasn’t the angel Essie had been led to believe? It wasn’t unusual for people to treat the deceased as though they’d walked on water when they’d been alive. She saw it in Liliana, who refused to let anyone say a bad word about her father.
Not that there was much bad to say about Carlos. Although he had snored and sometimes cheated at Uno.
There was no good way to get an answer about Stacia. Chad would be upset by such a question, as would Frank, most likely. He’d probably be straight with her, though. Asking Sophie would be an exercise in futility and only serve to create more drama.
It was best to probably leave things alone.
Before Essie was even aware of what she was doing, she’d opened up the TikTok app on her phone and was swiping through her feed.
Unsurprisingly, Sophie popped up.
Today, she was wearing a tight black denim dress, it seemed with a push-up bra, based on how much cleavage was visible. With it, she wore cream and black Chanel espadrilles, and an ivory and black Chanel necklace. A camelia, the signature Chanel flower, was pinned in her blond hair.
