Page 1 of Sweet Escape at Bayside
Chapter One
VIOLET PACED THE floor of her half sister Desiree’s bedroom, stealing glances out the window of their waterfront inn. They’d been blessed with a gorgeous September evening, the sky was clear, and the breeze hadn’t yet kicked up. Summer House sat high on the dunes, giving Violet a gorgeous view of the beach below, where Desiree’s fiancé, Rick, mingled with his brother and friends around the beautiful arbor he’d built for the wedding. The ceremony was supposed to start in ten minutes, but Violet and Desiree’s selfish, flighty mother, Lizza, had yet to show up. Desiree had been watching the parking lot like a hawk out the front window, while Violet and three of their closest friends tried to distract her. It was bad enough that their good friend Harper couldn’t make it back from Los Angeles for the weddingorto help out at their inn while Desiree was on her honeymoon. If Lizza was lucky, she’d have an equally good excuse, or she’d haveVioletto answer to.
Rick’s sister, Mira, was nursing her newborn baby girl, Holly, as the girls chatted about the wedding. Desiree looked anxiously out the window again. If Violet had any hope of getting her down to the beach before she fell apart completely, they had to get a move on.
“How much milk can one baby drink?” Violet asked.
Mira touched Holly’s cheek and said, “As much as she needs or wants. As Hagen says, it’s not like she can have a hamburger.” Hagen was Mira’s little boy, who was outside with her husband, Matt. “You might as well call meBessiefrom now on. I feel like a milking cow.”
“You look beautiful,” Desiree reassured her.
“Well,beautiful Bessie,” Violet said, “you’d better hurry up or the sun’s going to set.”
“Shh,” Desiree urged. “Don’t rush her. Let Holly eat in peace.”
Desiree looked gorgeous with her blond hair tumbling loose over the shoulders of her peach maxi dress. The corset top laced up the front, showing off her hourglass figure, and the skirt had ruffles from hips to ankles. Desiree was as proper as Violet was unfiltered, and after a lifetime of barely knowing each other, they’d spent the last couple of years forming a sisterly bond Violet had never imagined possible. The wedding was exactly as Desiree had wanted, with lots of frilly, flowery stuff and sappy, tacky things, like wooden signs leading down the dune that read LEAVE SHOES HERE!YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!and THIS WAY TO YOUR FOREVER!
At least Rick wouldn’t let Desiree down. He was determined to make sure all of her dreams came true. Desiree thought their honeymoon was going to be spent at the Monroe House, a remote Upstate New York resort, but they were only spending one week there. Desiree had never been overseas, and once their week was up, Rick was going to surprise her with an additional two weeks in Portugal. Violet couldn’t be happier for her.
“Babies need calm environments,” Serena said, peering into the mirror and fussing with her dark hair. She had recently gotten engaged to Rick’s brother, Drake.
Violet rolled her eyes. “Babies spend nine months getting rocked and rolled as their mommy and daddy bang like bunnies.”
“Violet!” Desiree chided her.
Violet set her hands on her hips and said, “Don’t even pretend you’re embarrassed by that when every one of us knows if you have good or bad sex based on the breakfasts you make for us each morning.”
Desiree’s cheeks flushed. “But you don’t have totalkabout it!”
“Yes, she does,” Mira said with a smile. She pressed a kiss to Holly’s forehead and tucked herself back into her dress. “Look how much fun she’s having making you blush.”
Desiree sighed.
Emery, Desiree’s best friend, who had recently moved to the Cape, watched as Mira burped Holly and said, “I think I need a baby.”
“Like you need a hole in the head,” Violet said. “You can barely feed yourself.”
“That’s what Dean is for.” Dean was Emery’s fiancé, and he co-owned Bayside Resort, the property next door to the inn, with Rick and Drake. “And I have an insatiable appetite for that man.” Emery waggled her brows, making them all laugh. She looked down at her lean, toned body, a benefit of teaching yoga at the inn, and palmed her breasts. “Besides, if I had a baby, I’d have nice knockers.”
“Can wepleasehurry up so Des and Rick’s frickery can finally be legal?” Violet waved toward the door.
Emery bit her lower lip, giving Violet a worried look. Emery had grown up with Desiree in Oak Falls, Virginia, and she knew just how often Lizza had let her down.
Violet glared at her.
“Come on.” Violet grabbed Emery’s arm and dragged her away from the others. “If you mentionLizzaI will kill you right here and now.”
“I won’t,” she whispered as the others fawned over Holly and Desiree. “But…” She glanced at Desiree, who was heading for the window again.
“Nobuts,” Violet said sternly. “I’ve got her.” She went to corral the others and said, “Okay,Bessie, Serena, please go keep the guys company and tell Ted we’re on our way.”
Ted was Desiree’s father, and for the first seven years of Violet’s life, he’d also been Violet’s stepfather. Until Lizza got bored, divorced Ted, and yanked Violet out of the only happy family she’d ever known. She’d left Desiree to be raised by her father, and she’d whisked Violet away to live a nomadic lifestyle as Lizza taught English as a second language, meditated, and floated through life on a whim.
The girls hugged Desiree, and then Violet ushered them out the door, trying to ignore the thickening of her throat as sadness rounded Desiree’s shoulders.
“I can’t believe she didn’t show up,” Desiree said. “I thought she really wanted to see me get married. She even said she was bringing a plus one.” Her voice went low and angry. “Why did she bother asking us to reserve the artist’s cottage for her for a month if she had no intention of showing up? We could have rented it out. You don’t think something could have happened to her, do you?”
“No.She has spent a lifetime letting us down. This is what she does.” Violet dragged Desiree away from the window, gritting her teeth, when what she really wanted to do was hunt down their mother and give her a piece of her mind.
