Chapter Twenty-two
After leaving Aunt Lily and Mari in the dining room, Victoria returned to her room with thoughts of making a list of places she and her youngest sister could visit the next day. She had just stepped into her room when her cell phone started ringing with a familiar tune. It was Angelica.
Her smile was instant. She had felt like she was forgetting something since she’d arrived in Valentine key. And this was it. Not talking to Angelica every other day had been missing from her life.
It was their habit to talk several times a week. Victoria had been so distracted by all the unexpected news that had been revealed and, to be honest, her flirtation with Miles Lang that she hadn’t thought to communicate with her own daughter. Crazy.
“Hello, my love. I’ve missed you.”
“Mom, I’m so glad you picked up,” Angelica said, sounding surprised that she’d gotten hold of her mother in person. “I haven’t heard from you since you left the Miami airport and I was getting worried.”
“I’m sorry, Angelica. It’s been pretty nuts here in Florida. I have all kinds of news to tell you. Do you have time to chat or is this just a quick check-in?”
“Luckily, I do have time to chat. I can’t wait to hear about all the interesting things that you’ve learned.”
“First of all, are you doing okay? Are you and Ryan all right?” Her daughter had met Ryan Moore in college. They had been together since the day they met and seemed incredibly happy.
Victoria liked Ryan very much. He was polite, a bit shy but clearly loved Angelica with all his heart. She loved that his entire family treated Angelica like one of their own.
“We’re doing great. Ryan got a promotion this week at work, so we went out and celebrated at a fancy restaurant in Portland.”
“Congratulations! Tell him I’m proud of him.”
“I will. Now, tell me all the juicy gossip from Valentine Key.”
Victoria quickly went over her arrival in town and the formalities of the reading of the will. Then she dropped the bomb. “So, the first big news I have for you is that you have an Aunt Marigold that nobody knew about until the will was read and she was in it. Can you believe it?”
“What? No! Wow. Why was she kept secret? Do you know?”
“The going theory is it was because Horatio didn’t marry her mother and she was a girl instead of a son. He probably also didn’t want anyone to know that basically she was conceived before he separated from Sunshine.”
“Interesting. Okay, what else? That was shocking.”
“The second shocking news is that your grandfather never finalized his divorce from Sunshine and that means she’s his official widow. They’ve been married all this time and no one knew, not even Sunshine.”
“Oh, my gosh! Not even Sunshine knew they were still married? Wow. That is crazy. What would have happened if she decided to get remarried? Or him? You know, I wondered why grandpa never got remarried again. I guess now we know why.”
“Exactly. Now we all know why.”
“What else? Is there more? I mean, a secret sister you never knew about and the fact that your father’s third wife has been his third wife all this time is certainly enough to be considered shocking. But why do I have the feeling you have more to tell me? Spill!”
Victoria laughed and held her phone close to her ear. “The final piece of shocking news is that my father gave all seven of his daughters a challenge.”
“A challenge. That sounds ominous.”
“No, no. Not at all. It’s more like a friendly competition. He has arranged for us each to manage a business in Valentine Key for a year. If we are willing to accept the dictates of the challenge and move here to the island, that is.”
“You would have to move to Valentine key?” Angelica asked.
“Yes, it’s part of the agreement. Each of us was assigned a business that Grandpa owned as a part of his personal estate. His lawyer, Miles Lang, will be the judge of how we do. At the end of the year, he will decide who did the best out of all the sisters. The winner will have the power to choose a voting member to sit on the board of Lovelock Enterprises. I image it will likely be Miles, regardless of who wins. The winner will take a seat on the board as a non-voting member, to ensure the Lovelock sisters at least get a voice.”
“That was a lot of words, but all I heard was ‘Miles Lang.’ How is Mr. Hunky Lawyer these days, Mother?” Angelica’s voice was filled with all kinds of innuendo.
It wasn’t a secret to Angelica that Victoria had a certain amount of respect and affection for her father’s right-hand man. Angelica had liked him since meeting him at fifteen and already approved of him.
“Miles is … good. He’s the same as he always has been. You know. Good.”
“Really? That’s all you’ve got? I know you have more to say than he’s good. What is going on between the two of you? Is there something going on between the two of you? Because if there isn’t, there should be.”
“Angelica,” was all Victoria got out before her daughter interrupted.
“Don’t ‘Angelica’ me. Tell me everything!”
“Okay. I can neither confirm nor deny that there may have been a few walks on the beach.”
Angelica let out a loud whoop into Victoria’s ear through the phone. “That is so amazingly great! I’m so excited for you, Mom. Really I am.”
“Clearly you are excited, since I’m going to have to get a hearing aid now that you screamed in my ear.”
“Are you going to do it?”
“Get a hearing aid? No, I was just kidding.”
“No, Mom. Are you going to move to Valentine Key? Will Miles be there the whole time? Are you going to start a romance on Valentine Key with Miles?” Her voice turned serious when she added, “Because I hope you do. I think you’ve been alone way too long, Mom. He likes you. You like him. I like him. It’s a win-win-win.”
“To be completely honest, I’m pretty sure the romance has started. We’ve even gone on a…date.”
Victoria pulled her phone away from her ear as her daughter screamed again.
“I am so glad to hear that, Mom! And I’m really excited for you to move to Valentine Key.”
“So you think I should do it? Move from New York to Florida?”
“Absolutely. You travel all over the place hither and yon, only to come back to your teeny tiny little apartment in a city of over eight million people. Of course you should move to Valentine Key, where there’s sunshine, tropical weather and the beach. And, most important of all, Miles will be there.”
Victoria laughed. “I’m glad you approve of my tentative plans.” Thinking of Aunt Lily, she sobered. “The other thing I probably need to mention is that the Lovelock Inn isn’t doing as well as it used to. That’s another reason I want to move here—to help Aunt Lily.”
“I think that’s great, Mom. Aunt Lily was always really good to you and me both.”
“That is exactly what I think.”
They chatted for almost half an hour before they hung up, Angelica demanding that her mother keep her better informed about not only what was going on with bringing the Lovelock Inn back to its former glory but all the details of her love life with Miles.
Victoria only promised to give her regular updates on how the Lovelock Inn was doing, at which point Angelica threatened to come down to Valentine Key regularly to see for herself.
That was not a threat at all. Victoria couldn’t wait for her daughter to come for a visit.