Chapter 2 #4
The man turned a wide dazzling smile on Eugenia and Eloise, shook hands with them, and introduced himself as Brad Jackson.
Sofia hugged her mother and Eugenia invited them to have a cold drink on the porch before she took them to their house.
The two sisters chatted while Brad thanked their mother for the invitation.
“Did everything go all right on the trip?” Eugenia asked them, as they all sat down for a few minutes.
“It was fine, except we had a tornado in the mountains last week, and I wasn’t sure we could come.
It flattened a lot of the shacks people are living in and caused a bunch of babies to come early, and there were a lot of people injured.
We both haven’t stopped for a week,” Sofia said, and Brad nodded.
“Brad is a trauma surgeon and he operates in a first responders’ truck sometimes.
” She clearly admired him, and they exchanged a warm look that touched Eugenia when she saw it.
They chatted for a few minutes, discovered that he had trained at NYU, was originally from Chicago, and his father was a cardiac surgeon.
Sofia had said that he was thirty-five years old.
Eugenia wondered what Brad’s family would have thought of Sofia’s ragtag outfit and combat boots. But Brad didn’t seem to mind.
They were ecstatic when they saw the guesthouse she’d assigned them, and she left them to unpack and settle in. Brad handed Eugenia a large box of French chocolates he had bought at the airport, and she thanked him.
Eloise dropped into her mother’s bedroom when she heard her come in.
“Wow, he’s a good-looking guy, and more sophisticated than her usual men. He seems nice.” Eloise smiled at her mother.
“I like him,” Eugenia said quietly. “A hell of a lot more than Geoffrey,” she said with a sigh. She hated Geoffrey’s pretentiousness; she could never understand how Gloria could stand it.
“Of course, he’s educated, intelligent, handsome, nice, and comes from an educated family. What’s not to like? They’re probably a lot more respectable than we are, even if his father isn’t a lord,” Eloise said with a grin. “We have to get Sofia some decent clothes to wear.”
“Brad doesn’t seem to care,” her mother commented. And if he loved Sofia for who she was as a person, that was good enough for her.
“Is he coming to the wedding?” Eloise asked.
“I have no idea. I didn’t ask her. And she hasn’t said,” Eugenia responded.
“Let’s see how he survives this week,” Eloise said with a mischievous expression. “He’s brave to come for a vacation with a woman with three sisters.”
“They’ll be fine,” Eugenia said optimistically, and Stefano and Liz arrived as she said it.
They’d come in their own car and Liz had more luggage than Eloise, but Eugenia knew that everything she’d brought would be short and tight, either in gold or with rhinestones on it, and cutouts in frightening places, worn with six-inch heels.
Liz was a businesswoman and a smart one, but she dressed like a chorus girl.
She tried to compensate for what she lacked in taste by overdressing for every occasion, which always made Eloise wince.
She was the resident fashion police for all of them, even for her mother.
The others didn’t care as much. Eloise was a purist about fashion and style, and always said that Liz’s wardrobe gave her anxiety.
It all had glitter on it. They were going to see a lot of it for the next week.
Stef and Liz loved their little guesthouse.
Everyone gathered on the porch of the main house at the end of the day.
Liz and Stef met Brad then, and the two men engaged in conversation immediately.
Brad liked every member of the family he had met so far, and they liked him.
He was knowledgeable about wines, sports, art, and music, and Sofia looked proud of the man she had brought home.
Eugenia could see that she was crazy about him, which was why she had invited him.
They were enjoying a lively conversation when Gloria and Geoff arrived, looking tired and bedraggled from the trip.
Geoff complained about the flight, the car service, and the driver before he even greeted anyone.
Eugenia had flown them business class and hired a driver to get them to the Hamptons, and he didn’t thank her.
He had an aura of entitlement that made Eloise’s skin crawl, and everyone tried to ignore it for Gloria’s sake.
Geoff had had to have a Covid test before leaving London and another one at the airport on arrival, and proof of vaccination, which annoyed him and he grumbled about that too.
Brad was very quiet as he listened to Geoff complain, and he watched the family’s reaction with interest. Eugenia looked pained, Eloise looked furious, Stefano ignored him, and Sofia rolled her eyes, while Gloria tried to calm him down.
Geoff paid no attention to them and Eugenia took him quickly to their guesthouse to drop off their bags and clean up before dinner.
The driver carried their bags in and Geoff didn’t lift a finger to help, or thank him as the driver set down their bags and left.
Gloria always explained his frequent moodiness and outbursts by saying he was tired, like a child.
He was incredibly spoiled. He firmly believed that being the son of an earl allowed him to be as rude as he wanted.
“Who was that?” he asked Gloria about Brad, as they changed for dinner.
“My sister Sofia’s new boyfriend. He seems nice.”
“Is he coming to the wedding?” Geoff asked her.
“I have no idea. Sofia hasn’t asked me. Is that a problem?” she asked him directly.
“I don’t care. But it might be for my parents. They’re not as open-minded as your family.”
“My mother won’t like that. If he’s dating Sofia, he’ll be invited,” Gloria said firmly. She sounded definite about it, and Geoff shrugged and went to take a shower.
—
After Geoff and Gloria went to change, Sofia groaned and sounded like a teenager when she asked her mother, “Do I have to change for dinner?” Eloise rolled her eyes when she asked the question. “I didn’t bring anything fancy.”
“You don’t need to wear anything fancy,” her mother reassured her, “just clean jeans, and maybe something a little less military,” she said gently, referring to the knee-high combat boots.
“Come upstairs with me and I’ll lend you something,” Eloise volunteered.
“I’ll look like I’m going to a funeral,” Sofia grumbled. “Everything you own is black.”
“At least you won’t look like you enlisted in the Marines,” Eloise shot back at her.
“Never mind. I’ll figure it out,” Sofia said, and left with Brad. He put an arm around her and gave her a hug and a kiss as they walked back to their cottage. Eugenia smiled as she watched them. They made a nice couple, he was intelligent and pleasant, and Sofia said he was an exceptional doctor.
“I like him so much more than Geoff,” Eugenia said to Eloise when they were dressing for dinner, and Eloise wandered into her room as her mother was doing her makeup.
“Is Geoff going to be a problem?” Eloise asked her mother.
“I’m not sure. He’s a problem about everything.”
“I hope Gloria can calm him down and shut him up, or I will. He’s so damn rude and so entitled. He doesn’t appreciate anything you do for them,” Eloise said. They went downstairs to join the others then.
Sofia had miraculously produced a pair of white jeans with torn-out knees from her suitcase, an oversized man’s bowling shirt she’d bought at a vintage shop in Nashville, and high-top pink sneakers, which were an improvement over the combat boots.
Eloise rolled her eyes again. She was wearing a very pretty black cotton Alaia sundress and black high-heeled sandals that laced up her legs.
Eugenia was wearing white jeans herself, with a pink patterned silk Hermès shirt and gold sandals.
Gloria was wearing a white skirt and white T-shirt, and Liz was wearing a backless white dress with rhinestone trim and silver high heels.
The men all wore white or normal jeans, Stefano with a collared blue shirt, Geoff a blue-striped T-shirt, and Brad a crisp white collared shirt with normal jeans.
He didn’t seem to mind Sofia’s eccentric vintage wardrobe and looked totally besotted with her.
They were constantly talking or whispering to each other, smiling and laughing.
They seated themselves at dinner, and everyone seemed relaxed, until Eugenia realized halfway through dinner that Geoff never spoke to anyone.
He avoided conversation and appeared to be sulking for some unknown reason.
Brad didn’t seem to notice, and spoke to Stef and Liz and Eloise all through dinner. No one seemed eager to talk to Geoff.
The meal was delicious. They had local lobster and crab, with a very decent French white wine, and they were all in high spirits and having fun by the time Phillip and Daphne showed up in time for coffee and dessert.
Daphne looked enormous in a pretty pale blue cotton dress that somehow made her look even bigger, but lovely, and Phillip was wearing white jeans, a white Hermès shirt, and a blazer, and looked like a grownup.
Everyone was happy to see them. Stefano and the sisters all kissed each other, and no one could ignore the size of the twins.
“Oh my God, you look like you’re having triplets, or quadruplets,” Eloise said to her favorite sister.
Sofia introduced Phillip and Daphne to Brad, and Daphne gave him a warm welcome, as did Phillip.
Only Geoff had not spoken to anyone all evening, but the conversation was lively enough to cover it.
Eugenia was annoyed by Geoff’s lack of effort and communication.
He acted as though no one at the table was quite good enough for him, as if they were all beneath him.
Gloria made an effort to compensate and spoke to Brad through most of dinner, since she was sitting next to him.
Eloise made a comment to Gloria when they left the dinner table. Of all the siblings, they were the two who got along the least well, and sparks between them were not uncommon. The others were used to it.
“You should tell your fiancé to make a little more effort to be congenial with everyone, for Mom’s sake.
We’re all guests here,” she said under her breath.
“Brad is a great guy, and it’s not fair to Mom or Sofia to ignore him or make him uncomfortable.
Geoff needs to act like an adult and talk to all of us.
You may be willing to put up with his moods, but that’s not how we do things on Mom’s time.
We’re all here to have fun together.” She didn’t say that Brad was ten times the man Geoff was, and that they all already liked Brad a lot better.
At the end of the meal, Geoff had regaled them with boring stories of his family history, how blue his blood was, and how important his grandfather had been, which no one cared about.
Brad was a great deal funnier, far more modest, a lot smarter, and nicer to be around.
And Sofia had blossomed since she’d been with him.
Everyone liked Brad, which Geoff couldn’t stand.
Geoff hated it when anyone else got the attention or was in the limelight.
He acted like a spoiled child, and Gloria indulged him, which Eugenia thought was a grave mistake and gave him bad habits for the future.
And it annoyed Eloise that they were about to get stuck with Geoff forever.
She couldn’t understand how her sister could stand him, and he was a bore on top of it.
Geoff and Gloria went to their guesthouse immediately after dinner, and the others sat around, drinking and talking and laughing until well after midnight, as Eugenia watched them with pleasure.
No matter what it cost her to pay for the vacation, this was what life was all about, and worth every penny.