Page 39 of The Hideaway

"Uh," Banks says. “To be perfectly honest, I don't know many men who like to spend their Sunday afternoons watching a pregnant lady open little outfits wrapped in tissue paper while they drink champagne."

This makes Sunday laugh, and it appears to cut through the tension that's been radiating off of her in Peter's presence. "A very good point." She takes a deep breath. "Okay, I need to go and take this picture." She hands her drink to Banks and straightens her polka dot dress, looking at him for approval. He nods. "Let's do this," she says firmly.

Banks holds both champagne flutes as he watches Sunday and her ex-husband gather in front of the camera with their two daughters in what passes as a reasonable facsimile of family togetherness. They turn up the wattage on their smiles, lean in to one another, and give the people what they're used to getting from the Bonds: a gleaming, white-toothed Vice President, his fit, cheerful wife, and their two stunning, adopted daughters.

They are picture perfect and Banks feels a wash of envy as he watches them together, imagining all the things they've shared that he can never be a part of. All the holidays, trips, inside jokes, fights, make-ups, and even the small details that create family life. Knowing that things ended as badly as they did, or that Peter essentially put Sunday through hell over the course of their marriage doesn't help to erase the sensation he's having in this moment of being an outsider. Cameron and Olive each switch positions so that they're flanking the other parent, and Sunday and Peter are wedged in between them, arms around one another as they smile gamely for the camera. Rationally, Banks knows that they're pros at putting on a show and giving people what they want to see, but seeing them together is still painful.

He drains his champagne as Sunday talks to Olive and a few of the other women, watching as her face lights up with joy and her eyes dance in the presence of her daughters. Banks is a lucky man that a woman like Sunday is even interested in him, and he knows it. He won't jeopardize what he has with Sunday or act like an ass by getting confrontational with the former Vice President. It's completely unnecessary; they're men, not apes. And it will be easier in the end if he just vanishes and lets them have their moment here as a family. His presence is totally unnecessary.

Redheaded Carmen starts clapping her hands to call everyone together while Cameron and Liam open gifts, and Banks drains Sunday's champagne too, just for good measure. He's still standing by the kitchen island and he sets both champagne flutes down on the marble countertop, motioning to Sunday like he's heading to the restroom, which is conveniently located near the front door.

Without a word, Banks slips out of the condo, closing the door behind him lightly.

Chapter16

Ruby

The bookstore hasn't suffered too much in her absence, and Ruby can chalk this up to both Tilly and Vanessa, who have been running it while she was away. Vanessa is a completely capable, cheerful woman of about thirty, and she exudes competence and excitement over everything that has to do with books.

Case in point: Ruby asks her to set things up for a book club meeting on Friday night, and Vanessa immediately springs into action, sending an email to the other women, telling everyone what to bring, and ordering a box of cupcakes from The Scuttlebutt with the direction to add little pearls made of frosting to each one.

"Why pearls?" Ruby frowns, holding a stack of receipts in one hand as she looks up at Vanessa, who has been on the phone with Molly putting in the order. "We're readingThe Good Earth."

Vanessa looks at her like she's lost her marbles. "Because--The Good Earthis by Pearl S. Buck." She pauses, waiting for this to land on Ruby.

"Ahhh," Ruby says, going back to her receipts. "I guess that works. Plus cupcakes are never wrong under any circumstance."

Tilly, their resident Goth girl with an attitude, walks into the room carrying a stack of books that she's shelving. "I think we should have ordered Chinese food."

"From where?" Vanessa asks her, walking over to the window that looks out onto Seadog Lane. "Your grandpa's bar?"

"Maybe we can get Grubhub to deliver from Destin." Tilly sets the books on the counter loudly and then leans her hip against it, tapping her short, black nails on the wood.

"Seems reasonable," Ruby says mildly.

Her two shop assistants are as different as night and day: Vanessa is voluptuous, smiling, and dimpled, and also a lover of books and of her quiet evenings at home reading. But Tilly is all sharp edges and flashing eyes. While Vanessa wants to find the man of her dreams (preferably one who acts like the heroes of the quirky romcoms she favors), Tilly is nineteen and prefers to date women. But neither of them have had much luck finding love of any sort on an island populated mostly by eccentric middle-aged people, retirees, and small children. There is a surprising dearth of datable young people on Shipwreck Key, which is something Ruby notices every time her own daughters visit the island.

"So what did I miss while I was gone?" Ruby shifts the subject. Shehadmissed the island--even the Bordeaux region of France couldn't quite compete with the roar of the ocean that feels omnipresent here on Shipwreck Key. The beauty of wine country has nothing on the quiet, tropical beaches of her newly-adopted home, and the friendly demeanor of the locals and the rustic charm of Seadog Lane are heads and shoulders above even the quaintest ancient village in France.

"Molly and Bev got into an argument right out on the street," Vanessa says, glancing out at Seadog Lane. "Apparently he went into The Scuttlebutt and insulted her scones, so she threw him out and then she followed him onto the street to keep yelling."

A hand flies up to Ruby's mouth; she can scarcely imagine what would have possessed Bev to do such a thing. "Stop," she says. "He wouldn't dare."

Tilly is listening, eyebrows raised. "There's history there," she says. "My grandpa is a hothead, and he was probably mad about something else."

"What kind of history?" Ruby has heard tell that Bev and Molly have something of a romantic past, but she has no proof of this, nor is it easily believable, so she mostly regards it as, well, scuttlebutt.

Tilly shakes her head and puts a finger to her lips. "It's kind of like Phyllis and Joe at Fed Men," she says, referencing the owner of the grocery store at the end of the street and her longtime (and much older) employee, Joe Youngblood. Everyone knows they're an item, but no one talks about it because Phyllis and Joe seem to think it's a big secret. "We like to think of it as a 'don't ask, don't tell' kind of deal."

Vanessa mimes zipping her lips and throwing away the key.

Ruby looks back and forth between the two. "So you're telling me that Molly and Bev essentially had a lovers' quarrel right out on the street?"

Tilly shrugs, already looking bored. "Seems that way."

"Okay, what else?"

"Some kids came in and tried to steal a copy ofFifty Shades of Grey," Tilly says.

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