Chapter 6
Eugenia drove herself to the marina in Montauk the next day, and waited on the dock for the speedboat from My Dream to pick her up.
She had told Patrick she would be there at nine and she was five minutes early.
He was excited about spending the day with her, and having her stay for dinner at the end of it.
It felt like a vacation to Eugenia. She didn’t have to take care of anyone, plan a meal, worry about anything, or be responsible.
She and Patrick had a whole day to talk and relax, sail and swim, and get to know each other.
She got into the speedboat, and as they motored toward the yacht, she looked up, and saw that Patrick was waiting for her on deck, standing at the rail.
She had worn white jeans, a plain white T-shirt, and sneakers, with her hair in a ponytail down her back and very little makeup. She liked a clean, simple look, which was her style, unfussy, unpretentious, without distractions. He met her on the lower deck and gave her a hug.
“Thank you for coming. I know you must have your hands full with your kids. Thank you for spending the day with me.”
“It’s a treat for me.” She smiled at him. “Like a day off.” Over coffee and pastries at the outdoor dining table, she told him about the mishap with Tucker the day before, and about her feelings about Geoff, and the mystery visit on Monday from the woman who she was sure was Austin Wylie’s wife.
“Wow, if you’re right, that’s ballsy of her. What are you going to do? Tell your daughter?”
“I’ve been agonizing over it. Whoever the woman was, he spent the day with her and didn’t tell Gloria, and then lied about it and paid off the help to keep their mouths shut.
That’s a hell of a way to start a marriage.
She at least has a right to know. And I have to be the one to tell her.
It’s up to her after that. But I hate to see her make a mistake.
We’ve seen the movie, and we know how those stories end,” Eugenia said with a sigh.
“Whatever she decides, she won’t thank me for telling her. ”
“Being the parent of adults is so much more complicated than people realize. I always thought that when they graduated from college, or by thirty at the outside, they’d be on their way and our job was over, and we could just enjoy them when we see them.
But it’s actually harder than when they’re kids.
Now the stakes are higher and the consequences can be disastrous if they take the wrong job or marry the wrong woman.
I have one son, as you know, and he keeps me awake at night at thirty-five.
I can’t even imagine what it must be like with five, and situations like you just described with your daughter’s fiancé.
You have to tell her, but she may hate you for a while.
“My son fell in love with a girl when he was a senior in college,” Patrick said quietly.
“He was so innocent. She had the face of an angel, from a very religious, wholesome background. She was twenty-seven, and such a sweet girl. She said a few things that didn’t add up, and I felt terrible and had her investigated.
She’d been married twice and had a child out of wedlock that was living with her grandmother in Salt Lake.
She told us her grandmother was dead, and never mentioned the boy, of course.
She’d had him at fifteen. She was kicked out of college for cheating and had been arrested several times after that for dealing drugs.
I had a hell of a time telling Quinn how I knew and why I checked her out.
I just had some weird instinct that made me do it, and I hated being right.
She disappeared the next day, after he talked to her about it, and he never heard from her again.
I think she was a sociopath. I’m grateful he didn’t marry her.
He wanted to, and probably would have. But he’s never gotten seriously attached to any woman since, and now I’m worried about that.
He works hard, and he plays hard too, just as I did at his age, but I don’t think he’s ever opened his heart to any woman again. And how long can you do that?”
“Some people do it forever,” she said gently, but she understood what he was saying.
“I worried about the woman my son married. She’s a little older too, and from a completely different world from ours, but I’m actually starting to like her, and I can see what he sees in her.
She’s solid and smart, and works as hard as he does.
She has a weird family who make me cringe, but I think she’s good for him, and it doesn’t matter that she dresses like a chorus girl from Vegas.
I worry about my daughter Eloise working too hard, having no life except her career, and being alone.
I’m very worried about the guy my daughter Gloria is marrying in three weeks, and shouldn’t.
The only two I don’t worry about are Daphne, whom you know, who has a dream life with Phillip, and my youngest daughter, Sofia, who has her head on her shoulders, loves her job, and is a midwife in Appalachia. ”
“I really like her guy too, he seems solid as a rock, and they seem good together.”
Eugenia nodded agreement. “I worry like crazy about the others, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.
They have to make their own mistakes, but it’s hard to watch.
Now I know how my parents felt when I married at almost twenty-two, to a man I’d met in Italy and scarcely knew.
He’d never had a real job in his life, and was forty-five years old, living hand-to-mouth from commissions he made putting people and deals together.
He was all dazzle and no substance, and my parents were ultraconservative, solid, traditional people, and they were horrified.
And then I had five babies in five years because he liked the idea of that but not the reality, and he later walked off with a fortune and nearly all my savings when we divorced.
My parents were right, but who listens to their parents?
No one I know.” She smiled at him and he nodded.
“I didn’t listen to mine either. My grandfather made a fortune from a small inheritance, making careful investments.
My father used what his father had made to buy real estate, and he turned it into a very sizable fortune.
I took it another step further with some very high-risk investments that paid off.
It was all based on hard work and good solid judgment, and in my case taking chances other people were afraid of, but they worked for me.
My father was married to the same woman for fifty-two years and they died within months of each other.
When I married Quinn’s mother because she was pregnant, they were heartbroken at how foolish I’d been, and devastated when I got divorced.
They were staunch Catholics. My father was horrified by every investment I made, and every building I bought, and the risks I took.
He said it would all come tumbling down one day, and he wasn’t wrong.
But if it does now, I know I’ll make it back again, by the same hard work and smart investments.
Quinn is more conservative than I am, and he’s done well, but what is any of that worth if you don’t have a partner you love to share the joy and hard times, and don’t have a family?
I forgot to pay attention to that, and went out with women I didn’t care about, and rarely loved.
And when I did love them, I ran like hell so I wouldn’t get tied down.
That’s what I see my son doing now. And the toys are great,” he said, waving at the mega yacht around them, “but what my parents had was better. That’s where you did things right, Eugenia.
You managed to have the family and the business. ”
“That doesn’t keep me from being in hot water now,” she reminded him, “and my ex-husband was a joke. He was basically a charming professional gigolo. I can’t say that to my kids.
So I got the kids right, and the business, but I blew it on the man I chose to share it with.
I’m beginning to think you can’t have it all. I always thought I could.”
“You’ll choose more wisely next time,” he said with a smile.
“You’re grown up now. You can’t expect to pick the right partner at twenty-one.
You don’t even know who you are then. My parents got it right, but they lived in a different world.
They didn’t have the choices or the exposure or the temptations we do to make a mistake.
They came from the same background, same small town in Illinois, and met when they were twelve, and grew up together.
I think that’s why so many people go back to their childhood sweethearts when they marry for a second time later in life.
It’s hard to know who people are in the world we live in today.
And a lot of them are fakes and frauds and practiced liars, sociopaths like Quinn’s college girlfriend.
There are a lot of sharks in the waters we live in.
I meet them every day and I’m sure you do too.
All you can do is stay true to yourself, be who you really are, be honest and keep your eyes open.
I think in the long run, it pays off. You can make honest mistakes, but I correct them a lot faster than I did when I was young.
But what I don’t like about what my son is doing is that he keeps everyone at a distance.
He doesn’t let anyone in and he doesn’t trust anyone, ever since that girl when he was twenty-two.
That’s a sad way to live.” His worry for his son was in his eyes and Eugenia could see it, and sympathized.
“Maybe one of these days, the right woman will show up, and come over his walls and get through to him. I don’t believe he’ll stay alone forever.”