“I’m going to wash my hands,” Samantha said, stalking off.
Cora Jane intercepted her as she headed, instead, straight for the front door. Samantha whirled on her.
“Don’t think I don’t know you’re behind this,” she said irritably. “I heard enough of that call you made to Emily to know she was up to something. What I can’t figure out is why she’d take the chance of me strangling her not a half hour after I’d told her to stay out of my personal life. You must have been very persuasive.”
“We just love you, honey bun,” Cora Jane soothed. “We want you to be happy.”
“Shoving me down the throat of a man who’s not the least bit interested is not the way to accomplish that.”
“Oh, posh!” Cora Jane said. “Of course he’s interested. You didn’t see the way his eyes lit up when you walked in the door just now. I did.”
“What you saw, if anything, were sparks of anger over the meddling,” Samantha told her.
“I know what I saw,” Cora Jane insisted. “And you don’t want to offend the best man and create tension before your sister’s wedding, do you? Now, go on over there and be nice.”
“Is that an order?” Samantha asked.
Cora Jane leveled a look into her eyes. “Does it need to be?” she inquired, holding her granddaughter’s gaze.
Samantha finally sighed. “I’ll go, but I won’t like it.”
Cora Jane knew it wasn’t smart, but she couldn’t help chuckling. “You sounded exactly like that when you were a toddler and we forced you to do something you didn’t think you wanted to do.”
“If you’re trying to insult me by suggesting I’m behaving like a child, I don’t much care.”
“Actually I was just trying to remind you that in just about every one of those instances, we turned out to be right and you had yourself a good time.” She touched Samantha’s cheek with a soothing caress. “I’m doubting this will be an exception, unless you work hard at making it one.”
“This is the one and only tiny bit of slack I’m going to cut you,” Samantha warned. “I will not cave in again.”
“Of course not,” Cora Jane said, wisely hiding a smirk this time. “I wouldn’t expect you to.”
Samantha gave her a suspicious look, then headed back to the table where Ethan looked only slightly less irritated than she did. Oh well, Cora Jane thought, relationships had started with far less in common than mutual annoyance at a third party.
Satisfied, she returned to the kitchen, where Jerry turned from the stove and frowned at her. “I thought the only pot-stirring going on around here was supposed to be in the kitchen.”
“You do your stirring. I’ll do mine,” she retorted.
“One of these days your meddling is going to blow up in your face,” he warned. “Those girls of yours are independent thinkers, just the way you taught them to be.”
“Well, of course they are,” she said proudly. “It doesn’t mean that one of them can’t use a nudge from me from time to time. I don’t hear Emily or Gabi complaining, now that their lives are just about settled.”
“Samantha’s a different kettle of fish,” he warned. “So is Ethan Cole. Remember, I was with you the day you threw out the first bit of bait a few months ago. He didn’t bite. In fact, he made his lack of interest pretty clear. You might need to reassess your target and your tactics.”
Cora Jane shook her head. “I know what I know,” she insisted. “I’ve known Ethan since he was a boy. Those two are perfect for each other. They just have to get out of their own way and things will fall right into place.”
“I hope you’re right,” Jerry said, regarding her tenderly. “I know how badly you want this to work out. You’re convinced if they do, you’ll finally have all your girls back here in Sand Castle Bay and a dozen great-grandbabies underfoot eventually.”
“And what would be wrong with that?”
“Not a thing. I just hope you haven’t misjudged the situation this time.”
Cora Jane heard the genuine worry in his voice, and though she’d never in a million years admit it, he gave her pause. Jerry didn’t meddle, but he was a keen observer, especially of her and the granddaughters she loved. Could he have gotten it right? Were Samantha and Ethan a bad match? Or were they both so stubborn they’d fight fate just to spite her?
She thought about it, then thought some more, considering what she’d just seen with her own eyes. No, she concluded. Ethan and Samantha were every bit as destined to be together as Emily and Boone had been or Gabi and Wade. She was sure of it.
And in a lot of years of living, her gut hadn’t steered her wrong on more than one or two occasions. This wasn’t going to be another one of them. She’d see to it.
* * *
Samantha squirmed uncomfortably under Ethan’s cool gaze. Not even Emily’s steady stream of chatter or Greg’s determinedly upbeat efforts to keep the conversation flowing could cut through the tension at the table. It was getting on her nerves.
When she’d finally had enough, she stood up. “Ethan, could I speak to you outside, please?”
Every single person there looked startled by the request, but Ethan rose as if she’d just offered to show him an escape route from a particularly unsavory prison.
Casting one last scowl at her sister, Samantha led the way onto the deck at the side of the restaurant and headed toward the railing where they’d have a view of the ocean across the street. Thanks to an offshore storm, the surf was churning, reflecting her own emotions. She drew in a deep breath of the refreshing, salty air and turned to face Ethan.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have figured out that Emily and Grandmother had hatched some kind of plot the minute Emily started insisting we come here for lunch.”
Ethan’s hard expression eased slightly. “Not entirely your fault. This is your family’s restaurant, and I did come here, after all. I knew there was a chance you’d be around.”
She regarded him curiously. “So, why did you come?”
He shrugged. “Lost a bet, to be perfectly honest.”
Samantha’s lips twitched at his resigned tone. “To whom?”
“Greg,” he admitted sheepishly. “I’m thinking his matchmaking gene just might rival Emily’s and Cora Jane’s. If I’d had any idea he had such a devious, romantic streak, I’d never have opened that clinic with him.”
“So, what are we going to do about this? We’ve been warned. We know what they’re up to. Just hours ago we vowed to end the madness, and here we are again. Are we naive or just no match for their ingenuity?”
“No idea,” he conceded. “I’m way out of my element here. Oh, there have been a few people who’ve tried to set me up ever since my engagement ended, but most of them gave up eventually. If you say no often enough and forcefully enough, people stop trying.”
“So, you’re dead set against ever getting involved in another relationship?” she asked, hoping there was no hint of disappointment in her voice.
“Pretty much.”
“All because of a woman who, if you’ll pardon me for saying so, sounds about as sensitive as a slug?”
Ethan smiled at that. “That pretty much sums up Lisa.”
“Well, that’s just crazy,” she said.