Lydia was so kind and gracious, it was hard not to relax as she settled Darla into a chair by the sink and began brushing out her wavy hair.
The smiling woman with dark skin who had been introduced as Laura offered Jubilee and Alison mani-pedis, and Darla was glad when her mother accepted for both of them… and even more glad when they were given seats far enough away that they wouldn’t easily be a part of the same conversation.
“How are you liking Shifting Sands so far?” Lydia asked as she gently brushed.
“It’s lovely,” Darla said honestly. “Really, it’s gorgeous here. And everyone has been so kind.”
They chatted idly about the food and the beach until Darla couldn’t keep back the real question that was bubbling up in her chest, even if she wasn’t sure how to ask it. “There’s a waiter,” she said, as quietly as she could, as Lydia leaned her head back in the sink and started running water. “I was wondering who… it’s just… I was…” There was no safe way to finish the sentence.
“Oh, you must mean Breck,” Lydia guessed with a laugh. “Tall, dark hair, brown eyes, devastatingly handsome and knows it?”
Breck, Darla thought. She’d never heard the name before, but it was suddenly perfect. Breck.
Lydia continued as she turned off the water and began rubbing something that smelled delicious into Darla’s wet hair. “He’s our head waiter, and don’t take him too seriously. He will flirt with anyone, but he doesn’t really mean it.”
“Anyone?” Darla repeated, not sure what to make of the emphasis she used.
“He’s bisexual,” Lydia said casually.
Darla blinked, glad that Lydia had a quiet voice, and that her mother was loudly explaining the various spa services to Alison, as if she would obviously need Jubilee’s help to understand something of this class.
“Bisexual as in…” Darla had to clarify.
“He sleeps with both women and men.” Lydia’s fingers never stopped in their gentle scalp massage. “Does that bother you?” Her voice was too kind to be challenging.
“No,” Darla said honestly. She knew that it existed, along with a range of other sexualities, it just surprised her that Lydia talked about it as if it wasn’t a secret.
“He’s a sweetheart,” Lydia said fondly. “And so funny! I cannot wait until that man truly falls in love, because when he does…”
Laura, who had been giving Jubilee her manicure, chose that moment to walk past the sink to get some supplies from the shelf next to them. “Breck? Settle down? Is it possible?”
“Bisexuals can be monogamous,” Lydia said with a chuckle. “And I think that big heart of his deserves someone who can love him back just as much.”
To Darla’s mortification, the conversation had gotten loud. Loud enough to carry through the room.
“Oh, I saw that waiter, flirting with a man this morning,” her mother interjected with disgust from across the room. “Has he been bothering you, sweetheart? If he’s made an unwelcome advance on you, I’ll have that deviant canned. I won’t have some sex freak making you uncomfortable.”
There was an awkward moment of silence following her mother’s judgmental tirade. Darla, her head back in the sink, could see the flush in Lydia’s face and down her neck. She wasn’t sure if the woman was angry or just embarrassed for her mother’s shallowness.
Laura cleared her throat uncomfortably.
But before anyone else could speak, Alison spoke sharply. “Well, Jubilee, you certainly won’t have to worry about any advances with that ugly attitude. Laura, honey, I think my cuticles are soaked enough now.”
Someone gave a strangled giggle, but Darla couldn’t tell who. She wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t herself.
Laura noisily found the supplies she’d come for and returned across the room as Lydia turned the water in the sink back up to full and began vigorously massaging Darla’s scalp.
Darla could feel her heart pounding in her throat, and tears gathered in her eyes that had nothing to do with Lydia’s work. She’d held out some hope that the waiter — her mate! — Breck — would miraculously prove to be someone who could step into Liam’s shoes for the wedding steamrolling down on her and whisk her away to a fairy tale ending.
That hope was ashes in her chest now. If her mother would have disliked him as a lowly waiter before, she would certainly never accept an openly bisexual son-in-law. And even if she had somehow been able to get past that, now he had indirectly humiliated her, and humiliation was the kind of thing that Jubilee Grant never forgot or let go of.
Chapter 10
Breck straightened his tie, staring at his mute
d reflection in the stainless steel refrigerator.
His mate was probably out there now, being seated at the restaurant.