That evening while the sisters sat around the table enjoying one of Mrs. Grady’s fabulous dinners, Cami was surprised when Lana brought up the issue of the opening party.
“Why didn’t we discuss this during our earlier meeting?” Cami asked.
Lana’s eyes narrowed. “While Dad had plans in place for the grand opening gala, and Blake’s been finalizing them, he asked me this afternoon to get your feedback on the big promotional thing they’re going to announce next week.” She pulled out some papers. “He’s on the plane to California now, so I’ll send him a report with our thoughts, and copy the corporate PR people, but I thought we could toss around some ideas tonight.”
Delphi sat back, her usual skinny latte cupped between her hands. “So what do they have planned so far?”
“PR is already working on a campaign to give away some stays the weekend of the gala, starting with two four-night, major packages. It’ll be for one of the nicer suites, with meals and spa treatments—”
Cami interrupted. “Throw in a hot air balloon ride. If we can’t get the ski resort to donate it, I should at least be able to broker a discount, since they’ll get extra publicity in the campaign. It’s seriously incredible.” Vince had promised to take her up again as soon as the hotel had opened and she had time to breathe again. She couldn’t wait.
Delphi shivered. “No one is getting me three-thousand feet off the ground in a wicker basket, thank you very much. Just the thought freaks me out.”
“We can include those bedtime snack trays for two of the four nights, or one of those rose petal bed treatments,” Rosemary suggested.
Lana typed more notes. “Great. Any other ideas?”
They threw around thoughts for the packages and discussed the grand opening gala. Dessert was long gone when the conversation wound down and Lana turned off her computer.
“So where did you go last night?” Jonquil asked Cami. “You were gone for hours. I heard you sneak in.”
Cami played with the water bottle she’d switched to after her dessert coffee. She almost hadn’t stayed for chat after the unofficial meeting, but her conversation with Vince the previous night had left her with questions only the other daughters could answer. “I drove around for a while. Stopped in at a burger place for dinner and Vince walked in. We talked, and he took me back to his place to eat and stuff.”
“And stuff?” Rosemary’s voice was infused with meaning.
Though she tried to keep her expression cool, her lips quirked when she shot Rosemary what was supposed to be a quelling glance. Talking about her relationship was new to her and made her uncomfortable, though thoughts of Vince made her insides tingle. “It was talk. And some kissing.” She grinned. “Okay, a lot of kissing, and some crying on his shoulder. The man’s a saint for putting up with me. And for sticking my shake in the freezer so I didn’t come back to Oreo crumbs drowning in chocolate cream.” “You cried on him? What did he do?” Sage asked. “My brother can’t stand it when I cry. He ends up giving me anything I want.” She frowned into her herbal tea. “Of course, not every guy is like that. I can’t see muscle man security expert Joel giving anyone what they want, for any reason. I swear the man’s a robot.”
Cami thought the description of Joel was very apt. “Vince was sweet, very sweet, and we hashed out a lot of the stuff that’s been bothering me.” She shot an apologetic look at Lana, feeling guilty. “Sorry I didn’t talk it over with you. You’re just so mixed up in all of this, I needed an impartial listener.”
“And it didn’t help when I dropped my own bombshell on you,” Lana agreed.
“Oh? Do tell,” Rosemary set aside her espresso cup. The woman lived on the potent brew—and way later into the night than Cami would ever consider.
Lana pushed her fiery locks back from her face, glanced around the group. “I caught Dad cheating about eight years ago, when I was still in hotel management school. When I confronted him, it wasn’t pretty. Then I went to work at Ritz-Carlton for a while. I’m glad to have the experiences I had with them, but I didn’t do it to broaden my horizons— I did it because I was angry and needed some space. I never said anything to Cami, and she wasn’t very happy about it.” Her gaze centered back on Cami. “I’m sorry I unloaded on you last night.”
It still hurt, but she was starting to get a handle on it. “It was time you told me, and you had a good point, or three.” Cami sipped at the water and considered the discussion she’d had with Vince. She hesitated, then plunged ahead. “I have a question for the rest of you. You were spread out all over the place, and Dad was home close to half the time. I know he traveled a lot, but what kind of father was he to you? You couldn’t have seen much of him.”
Jonquil was the first to answer. “We spoke on the phone at least twice a week—every week—for as long as I can remember, and though I never saw him on holidays, there was always a special gift, an extra phone call. He made it to my birthday dinners a few times over the years. I saw him at least every other month. I always wished it could be more, but it was still better than lots of my friends who had divorced parents.”
“Same here,” Rosemary stated. “Except for my time abroad, when we cut back on visits, but he still called, kept in touch.”
“He always called,” Sage agreed. “But there was a long stretch when I wouldn’t talk to him.” She looked at Lana, then Cami. “Right after I found out about you guys, that I was between you in age, I stopped taking his calls. He’d been my hero, and I didn’t like learning he had feet of clay.” She wore a wistful smile. “When he came for his scheduled visit, I yelled and screamed at him, I pounded on his chest, and told him what I thought of the way he used my mom, the way he neglected his wife and kids because of me.
“He held me and told me he loved me until I calmed down. Finding out our moms weren’t isolated incidents hasn’t been all butterflies and cotton candy for us either.” She said this last straight out to Cami, making her feel ashamed that she’d been acting as if she were the only injured party.
Sage wet her lips and brushed the dark curls behind her ear. “Dad and my mom had no relationship besides sharing me since shortly after I was conceived, but he was around as much as he could be. He always made sure I had money for special extras, even when Mom married a few years later. He didn’t want me to go without things he thought I should have, and he treated my brother Harrison the same way, though without the special phone calls and daddy-daughter dinners.”
“That would have been a stretch for him and Harris to do the daddy-daughter thing. Funny, though.” Rosemary’s grin didn’t dim when Sage threw a decorative pillow at her.
“He always made time to do what interested me and he nurtured my dreams, encouraged me to do what made me happy, even if it wasn’t what he valued.” Delphi grimaced. “There were lots of times I felt second place to you two, but that was because he didn’t acknowledge me in public rather than because he didn’t make a real effort to keep up on what was going on in my life.”
“If I wanted to talk, needed to vent, whatever, he always made time, even if it wasn’t our scheduled talk time,” Rosemary added. “And if he was in a meeting, he always called back within a few hours. He never forgot or blew me off. But I’m seriously ticked he didn’t tell me he was sick so I could visit him before he died.”
“Get in line,” Jonquil said. “There’s no question we all wish he’d been around more. But considering how many of us there are, and the geographical problems, I’m impressed he managed so well. But I guess he always had the excuse of checking in on the resorts where we lived.”
Tears started pouring down Cami’s cheeks and she brushed them away. He really had loved them all, and made sure they felt it. Knowing this only confused her more as she tried to piece together the man she’d thought she knew with these new facets of his personality. “Thank you. This has been a lot to take in, and I don’t know how to deal with it.”
“You’re not the only one who feels that way,” Jonquil pointed out. “Even though we knew about you, we didn’t know about each other, and Dad had an amazing ability to maneuver everyone around him to do his bidding.” Her jaw set at a surly angle.
“You’re not kidding. I still can’t believe Delphi and I were on the same floor of the dorm and never had a real conversation.” Cami asked Delphi, “Did you know then?”
Delphi nodded. “Yeah. And I recognized you the first day I moved in. I was curious about you, even while I resented you for being the one he acknowledged. Did you notice he never came to the campus or dorms that year?”
Cami paused and thought back, then snorted in disgust. “You’re right. I never thought about it, though. He didn’t want to run into one of us while he was with the other one.” She called him a harsh name.
Rosemary laughed, but Sage gave Cami an admonishing glare.
Cami debated mentioning more, and decided to come clean. “He put a bug in Vince’s ear about me while they were planning the landscaping. He had Vince thinking I must have been a wallflower or something for Dad to be so pushy about how I was perfect for him, but it got him to step up and learn more about me.” She swore. “I actually thought I was making my own moves on this relationship, and then it turned out he’d manipulated that, as well.”
“He didn’t manipulate you into accepting a date, though,” Jonquil pointed out. “You did it on your own. And weren’t you dating someone pretty recently?”
“Ah, yes, Trent. The sludge of humanity. I split with him in January when I realized he was searching for a cash infusion. He kept popping back up, trying to convince me to give him another chance after Dad died. I guess our relationship was pretty well known. Too bad his financial need wasn’t quite as clear when we started dating.” She still couldn’t believe she’d been so gullible.
“So you split with him because he wasn’t as rich as you?” Rosemary asked.
“No.” Cami infused ice into her voice at the suggestion. “I dumped him because he cared more about the money than about me. I’m not giving a fortune hunter the time of day.”
“But did you care about him?” Jonquil asked.
Cami set her water to the side and shifted in her spot. “Not as much as I thought at the time.” She waved a hand. “Oh, I felt betrayed, but mostly I was embarrassed I let myself be taken in. Letting him go was ridiculously easy.”
“That’s almost harder,” Jonquil said with a nod. “I split with my boyfriend of two years, just realized it wasn’t going anywhere. I think I was more upset it took me so long to realize there wasn’t anything between us and we’d wasted our time than I was at the split.” She smiled. “Dad always said he was too bland for me. It’s irritating when you find out he’s right.”
“Isn’t it, though?” Rosemary asked. “Well, if Dad was in the matchmaking business for us before he died, no way am I going to start up anything with a guy he knew. Better yet, I’ll be far too busy running my kitchen to get involved with any guy at all for the next year, at least.”
Cami decided it was time for a change of subject. “Any interesting applicants in the pile I brought home?”
“A few, and a few others I’ll check into for servers and stuff. The applications better keep pouring in, because no way could we staff the entire hotel from what we’ve seen, and there were definitely a few I wouldn’t consider interviewing, never mind hiring.”
Cami grinned. “I’ve been in touch with a concierge from the Four Seasons in Denver. She thinks she might like a change of scene, and she’d be a great resource as we’re starting out. I’ve known her for a few years. She’s very good.” If she managed to get Lorna, it would make her life so much easier.
“That would be a coup,” Lana agreed. “Yes it would.”
They took turns discussing hiring possibilities, then directed the subject elsewhere. Cami mostly sat back and listened to the banter as it flowed from one woman to the next. She hadn’t considered the others might be struggling as much with current events as she was, or that they might be angry and confused about why their dad had kept so many secrets. They’d all lost something when their father died. But maybe, just maybe, the note he’d left her, his words about wanting her to have her sisters there to love and support her, would be fulfilled after all. Eventually.