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“Dan, it’s illegal to peep. You should know that.”
“I was in my own living room.”
“With the binoculars?”
“Well…”
“Come for coffee. I’ll clue you in. Ryan’s here, so you won’t be alone with me.”
“I’ll be right over.”
“Now I can get rid of the rest of these pastries,” Lisa told Ryan. “Feed ’em to Dan.”
“You’re mean.”
“Wait and see! He’ll gobble them up.”
Five minutes later, Dan was at the back door.
Waving him in, Lisa sneered. “Come in. You see us standing here. Why do you knock?”
“I’m not letting myself into your house, Lisa,” Dan answered, frowning. “Forget it.”
“She’s bustin’ on you,” Ryan said. “Come in. Have some pastry. I’ll pour you a coffee. Then I have to go back to Pam’s.”
“Thanks. I’m starving,” he said, taking a cup from Ryan. “I was supposed to go beachcombing with Pam and the kids today.”
“They’ve already been,” Lisa said.
“So who are the babes?”
Ryan nodded at Lisa. “I’ll let Lisa explain this one.”
“Believe it or not, they are long-lost cousins. Evidently, right before my father died, he discovered that his father wasn’t his birth father when a Beverly Johnson sent him a letter explaining everything. Those two women are her daughters. Both single. One’s an attorney, by the way, and other a nurse.”
“I know about Jack discovering his birth father,” Dan said. “What are they looking for if they already know that he’s dead?”
“Family, I guess. What else could it be? Curiosity. My mother is going to be the contact person. I just don’t have the energy or the guts to deal with a bunch of new people.”
“Just when I thought the pool of single women was about to dry up for me, those two knockouts show up.”
Lisa swatted at his arm. “That’s all we need. Can you let nature take its course, or are you hell-bent on making it weird for us?”
Ryan and Dan high-fived, laughing.
“I’ll do my best to screw it up,” he said. “You know I can.”
So when Rene Johnson got in touch with Pam the next day, Ryan got on the phone and let Dan know that the entire entourage of Johnson women were going to converge on Sea View for high tea that afternoon.
Now for Pam, high tea meant the kind of meal that had been served at the Smith Mansion in Manhattan back when there was still money for that sort of luxury. For this gathering, she’d enlist her sister Mary, who was in charge of the deli at Pam’s favorite grocery store, Organic Bonanza. To Pam’s delight, she’d recently taken over the bakery as well, when competition from Adam’s coffee shop began to make a dent in their sales.
“I want the standard high tea menu,” Pam explained when she stopped in after going to the gym.
“Here’s what I can do,” Mary said. “Shrimp salad on mini croissants, avocado toast with smoked salmon, goat cheese and chive finger sandwiches, butter and watercress on white, and the usual scones, cookies, strawberry shortcake. How does that sound?”
“Perfect. Now the question is, can you do it for this afternoon?”
“For you, I can. I’ll have Sam deliver it by two. How’s that sound?”
