Chapter Twenty-three
Mari got up early to make sure she was on time to meet up with Victoria. They had both talked about wanting to get an early start.
She found that she couldn’t wait to begin this new venture. The more time that went by and the more time she had to think about it, the more she realized it really was the perfect opportunity for her at this juncture in her life.
Mari didn’t have any super close ties in Chicago. At least not anymore. It had been a clean break from Adam, who could very well have moved to Southern California by now. She didn’t know for certain if he had. They hadn’t spoken since that last bitter fight.
Her pride wouldn’t let her call him to check in, because part of her felt like she should care more than she did. It made her feel like a terrible person. He was better off without her.
It was best to let it go. To let him go.
The shift to Valentine Key was going to be a big move for her, and she was excited by the prospect. Going from a small apartment in the heart of Chicago to an island paradise in the Florida Keys would be a big adjustment.
Mari walked into the breakfast area at the Lovelock Inn and spotted Victoria in line at the buffet. She walked up to the buffet, grabbed a plate and stood behind Victoria, who was waiting for another guest to finish piling bacon on his plate.
She hoped the man would leave some for the other guests. She liked bacon, too.
At long last, when his five-inch-high stack of bacon goodness seemed to be enough, he moved on to the egg station. Victoria took a few slices of bacon and looked over her shoulder to see Mari right behind her.
“Oh, good morning.” Victoria handed Mari the tongs so she, too, could get some bacon, at least what was left of it.
“Good morning,” Mari said. “I’m excited for the Valentine Key tour today. Thank you for taking the time to show me the island.”
Victoria slid a veggie frittata onto her plate next to her bacon and said, “Oh, no problem. I’m happy to do it.”
“Did you ever live on Valentine Key, like Darby?”
“No. Not really. I spent a couple of weeks here every summer when I was young and still attending boarding schools overseas.”
“You went to boarding schools overseas, plural?” Mari grinned at the idea that Victoria was much more of a rebellious soul than she’d thought. “Were you that much of a troublemaker that you got kicked out of every school you went to? Because you really do not look or act like that type at all.”
Victoria laughed. “Well, yes, I’m not. While I did go to several boarding schools overseas, it wasn’t because I was a troublemaker. And not all of them were overseas, just most of them.”
“Do tell.”
“The final two years, I was at a boarding school up in Connecticut. That’s where I graduated from high school. I promise, I never got kicked out of any boarding schools. For some reason, Horatio decided I should attend several. It meant that just about the time I’d start to settle in and make friends, whoosh, I was off to a new one.”
“That sounds difficult.”
Victoria nodded slightly. “The good news, I will say, is it did give me a love for different languages across Europe. And it also gave me a really good career in translations and as an interpreter.”
“I wonder why he made you go to a whole bunch of different boarding schools overseas. I mean, why would he do that?”
“You know, I used to wonder that myself. I recently found out that my mother, Isabella, spent a lot of time overseas and went to a number of boarding schools. Maybe our father was trying to give me the same childhood my mother had. To be honest, if that’s true, it sort of makes me like him better, and that’s saying a lot after being angry at him for most of my life.”
“Yeah, I was very angry at him for a long time, too. I almost didn’t show up for the reading of his will. Why would I? He made it clear that I was unwanted. I didn’t even realize it was because I was not a son, but I guess all of us sisters have that in common.”
“Indeed. The Lovelock sisters have had to make peace with the way our father treated us because of his unfulfilled ambitions. That determination ruled his life from when he was a young, newly married man with a baby girl. But that is a very long and complicated story for another time. I promise, I’ll tell you all about it one day. In the meantime, let’s have a nice breakfast, then search the island to see what it has to offer in the way of rental properties.”
“Great idea. I can’t wait to see more of the island.”
They hadn’t been seated for more than five minutes when Sunshine appeared in the doorway of the dining room and gazed around. Victoria and Mari waved and invited her to share their table.
“Good morning, you two,” Sunshine said. “It looks like it’s already a gorgeous day out there. What do you have planned for today?”
Mari said, “Victoria is going to show me around Valentine Key. We’re also going to look around to see what rental properties are available.”
“Really?!” Sunshine seemed very excited. “I was going to do the exact same thing.”
Mari and Victoria shared a look and came to a silent agreement before Victoria said, “Well, why don’t you go with us? The three of us can make a day of it. After we look around, perhaps we could have lunch in town somewhere. What do you think?”
“Thank you so much. That would be amazing. The twins both have to head back home early tomorrow morning. I was going to stay on for a few days to look for a place to live and see if there’s anything immediate that I can do to help Lily before I go back to Chicago to get ready to move here.”
Mari, Victoria and Sunshine had a lovely breakfast together, then returned to their rooms to get their purses and what they’d need for the day. Half an hour later, they met up in the lobby of the Lovelock Inn to go look around Valentine Key.
Victoria drove, because she was the only one who had rented a car in Miami. Sunshine had come in a taxi and Mari had used a ride-share from the airport.
Mari was well-prepared. The night before, she had looked online and found what she considered her top three contenders. Victoria had done the exact same thing, though she only had one of the three Mari had found on her list.
Sunshine had planned to see a real estate agent, then decided to just wing it and go with Mari and Victoria to see what they found.
“If I don’t find anything right away, I’ll talk to Lily about an extended stay at the Lovelock Inn. If I have to fork over money for rent, I just as soon give it to her. But I know that her busy season is coming up, and I don’t want to hog a room at a reduced rate that she doesn’t have available for a customer willing to pay the full rate.”
Victoria said, “Honestly, I don’t know if that’s going to be a problem. I’m worried that the Lovelock Inn isn’t doing as well as it used to.”
Sunshine nodded. “I thought that might be what was going on, but I didn’t want to say anything to Lily until I talked to you and Miles.”
“Miles had to unexpectedly go back to Philadelphia early this morning,” Victoria said. “Something came up with regard to Lovelock Enterprises. I guess he’s still attached to the company as their lawyer, at least for now.” Victoria sounded glum about his departure.
Mari said, “When is he coming back? I mean, will you miss him?”
Sunshine and Victoria both laughed.
“Yes,” her sister said with a mischievous smile. “I will miss him desperately. But it’s not like I won’t see him again. He wasn’t sure how long he would be gone, but he is also moving to Valentine Key so he can watch over us in our business endeavors as we compete against each other for a prize.”
She let out a sigh as they drove along. It was clear to Mari that her eldest sister cared very much about Miles Lang. Mari thought that was sweet.
“I’m very excited about the competition,” Sunshine said. “I sort of wish I had a business that I got to run for a year. I’ll just have to content myself with watching all of you sisters have fun and help where I can.”
Mari had a wonderful day with Sunshine and Victoria. They looked at an apartment complex that had a pool and a partial view of the ocean on the south side of the island near the bridge that led to the highway. Most of the apartments were one bedroom and one bath, which was really all Mari needed. Sunshine was looking for more of a rental house with a couple of bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms.
They drove all the way around the island and Victoria pointed out interesting places. There was a bona fide artists’ colony. Considering the business Horatio had assigned Mari, it was likely where she was going to be spending some time once she moved to Valentine Key. She didn’t see the Down To A Fine Heart Gallery as they made their way around the island. It was probably somewhere in town.
She could have asked Victoria to take her there, certain her sister would have obliged her, but Mari wanted to wait to see the business she’d be managing once she was certain she was going to come to Valentine Key. She was about ninety-five percent convinced but wanted to go back to Chicago before she made her final decision.
Home turf, so to speak.
During the island tour, Victoria pointed out some ruins that local legend said belonged to pirates who had once lived on the island, along with a marina that advertised glass-bottom boats for rent.
Every place they drove past had spectacular views of the ocean. Valentine Key was a beautiful place. Mari loved every part of the tour.
The island turned out to be much larger than Mari thought it was.
Victoria said she was probably going to keep looking for a place to rent once she returned from New York.
Mari’s idea of not making her final decision until she got back home flew out the proverbial window when she saw the final apartment building with rentals available. She decided she could be very happy in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment on one corner of the third floor with a stunning view of the ocean.
Surprisingly, it was cheaper to rent here than her Chicago apartment, which had a lovely view of the dumpster out back and the busy street out front.
Mari put down a deposit with the apartment complex’s rental office and told them she should be back in about three months. Victoria decided she would probably do the same thing, but she wasn’t ready to put money down yet.
Sunshine looked at three rental houses and loved them all so much she wasn’t sure she could choose only one, which Mari and Victoria thought was sweet. Sunshine was certainly a warm and lovely person.
Technically, she had been Mari’s stepmother the entire time she’d been alive.
So far, and luckily for her, no one had asked Mari when she was born. She knew for a fact that Horatio hadn’t been separated from Sunshine when he met Francesca Roselli.
Their month-long romance resulted in Mari’s birth eight and a half months later, a fact she didn’t plan on telling anyone right away.
Mari didn’t want to add insult to injury, especially not to Sunshine, who was the very embodiment of love, warmth and support.
She knew it would probably eventually come out, but from her point of view, it would be better for that information to come out much later. After the family got to know her better. That Mari was only about four months younger than Sunshine’s twins was a fact she wasn’t ready to share quite yet.
Someone was going to have to drag it out of her kicking and screaming.
Maybe it wouldn’t make any difference to her sisters and aunt, but Mari wasn’t willing to take that chance.