“I think he’s the best stepdad in the whole world,” Daisy said.
“I think so, too,” Karen said softly. The very best.
And when she weighed that against the petty annoyances that had come between them lately, there was absolutely no contest. The day she’d found Elliott had been the luckiest of her life. When the going got tough—and there was little doubt that it would again—she needed to remember that.
* * *
Elliott usually barely managed to squeeze out a half hour for lunch on Saturdays, but this week he turned his eleven o’clock appointment over to the spa’s other personal trainer and headed to his sister’s, determined to get to the bottom of whatever was going on in her household these days.
When he drove up to the large home Ernesto had built on a wooded acre of land outside of Serenity, he heard the kids splashing in the pool around back. Normally he would have circled around to greet them, but today his only goal was to get Adelia alone for a heart-to-heart conversation.
Just as he was about to ring the doorbell, the front door was flung open and Ernesto brushed past him, a scowl on his face. From inside the house, he heard Adelia shouting after him not to bother coming home.
Elliott closed his eyes, muttered a prayer for guidance, then walked inside to find his sister alone in the kitchen slamming dishes into the dishwasher, tears streaming down her face. He walked up behind her and put his arms around her.
“Tell me,” he commanded.
She turned to him, her expression stricken. Wiping ineffectively at her tears, she tried to force a smile. “I didn’t know you were here. How’d you get in?”
“Your husband kindly left the door open as he left,” he said wryly. “I heard, Adelia. I heard you tell him not to bother coming home.”
She waved off the comment. “People say things like that all the time. I didn’t mean it.”
“It sounded to me as if you did.”
“Oh, what do you know? You’re still in the honeymoon phase. What do you know about marital fights?”
He smiled at that. “Karen and I have had our share.”
“And gotten past them,” she said, her tone brisk. “Ernesto and I will, as well. Now, let me pour you a cup of coffee. I have some of Mama’s cookies here, too.” She frowned then. “Why aren’t you at the spa? I thought Saturday was one of your busiest days.”
“It is, but I thought we needed to talk about what happened last night.”
She frowned, looking genuinely mystified. “Last night? Did something happen at the dance? Selena didn’t say a word. Neither did Ernesto.”
“I’m not surprised,” Elliott said. “It wouldn’t show either of them in the best light.” He described the scene at the dance. “Selena deliberately humiliated Daisy in front of all their classmates.”
“I am so sorry,” Adelia said at once, her expression heartsick. “I’ll deal with this right now. Selena’s behavior was totally unacceptable. Poor Daisy. My heart breaks for her.”
She was about to call Selena in from the pool, but Elliott stopped her. “I think the more important question may be why she was so upset that she lashed out in the first place.”
When she didn’t immediately answer, he prodded, “Adelia?”
Adelia sighed heavily. “I suspect you can blame her father for that. Ernesto didn’t want to go. Just as I’d feared he might, he invented some sort of important business meeting and intended to bail at the last minute. I stepped in and insisted that he couldn’t disappoint his daughter like that. I’m afraid Selena overheard us arguing. She knew her father was ready to choose business over her, that he didn’t care if he let her down.”
“Has that been happening a lot lately?” he asked, holding her gaze. “The fighting, I mean.”
She blinked and looked away. “We’ll work things out. We always do,” she said, almost by rote. It sounded as if she’d been using the same words to try to convince herself for some time now.
“Have you talked to Mama about whatever’s going on?” he pressed.
She gave him an incredulous look. “Are you crazy? And listen to her lectures on how it’s all my fault if things aren’t a hundred percent rosy in my marriage? You know how Mama is. She believes all husbands should be treated like kings, even if they’re acting like asses.”
Elliott smiled at her assessment. “True enough,” he said. “She was certainly devoted to our father, no matter how unreasonable he was being.”
“Trust me, Papa was a bastion of reason and calm compared to Ernesto.”
There was a bleak note in her voice that Elliott found worrisome. “Adelia, is he bullying you? Abusing you?”
She closed her eyes, her cheeks pink with embarrassment. “Nothing like that. I’d never allow it. For all of my weaknesses, I do have enough pride not to tolerate such disrespect.”
“I hope not,” he said, still concerned. “I’d straighten him out if he ever raised a hand to you.”
Adelia almost smiled at his vow. “I know you would, and I love you for it.”
“Would you like me to stay and have a talk with Selena myself?”
She shook her head. “No. I’ll handle it. There’s no need for you to witness the tantrum she’s likely to throw when I tell her she’s grounded for the next month.”
Elliott was startled by the severity of the punishment his sister intended. “A month?”
She shrugged. “Anything less is just an inconvenience. Believe me, a month is the only thing that gets her attention.”
“Maybe what she needs more than punishment is reassurance that her parents are going to work harder to get along,” Elliott suggested.
Adelia gave him a sad look. “I try not to make promises I’m not sure I can keep,” she said as she walked him to the door.
Elliott wanted to stay, wanted to wipe the sorrow from his sister’s eyes, but he wasn’t the one who had the power to do that. And it was increasingly apparent that the man who held that power didn’t care.
* * *
“Is Frances going to be looking after Daisy and Mack tomorrow night by any chance?” Dana Sue asked Karen on Monday.
Karen regarded her boss with surprise. “I hadn’t planned on it. I’m off tomorrow, remember? I’ll be home with the kids.”
“Let me rephrase,” Dana Sue said, sounding more like Helen, when she was cross-examining a reluctant witness. “Can Frances take care of the kids tomorrow night?”
Puzzled, Karen shrugged. “I’d have to check with her, but probably. What’s this about? Do you need me to work after all?”
“Nope. The guys—except for Erik, who’ll be in charge here—are all getting together for basketball and more talk about the gym, so the wives decided we deserve to have a margarita night. It’s been ages since we’ve had one. We want you to come.”
“I thought margarita nights were some sort of sacred ritual for the Sweet Magnolias,” Karen said. She’d certainly never before been invited.
“And we think you should officially be one of us,” Dana Sue said with a grin. “If Elliott’s going to be in business with some of us and our husbands, then you should be included when the girls get together.”
“Really?” Karen said, surprised by the hint of wistfulness that had crept into her voice. She’d always wondered