Page 30 of Yours, Forever

In preparation for dinnerwith Daniel and Ale, I'd gotten two bottles of my private Chilean wine collection express-delivered to Laguna Island. I'd added a bottle of Scotch at the last minute, too, even if Eva insisted I was overdoing it. I was glad I'd overdone it, in that case, because I got a micro-smile out of Daniel.

We sat at his dining table, a meal he and Ale—mostly the latter—had made for us. The condo was small but modern; something I would have expected to see in the city. The walls were dark gray tones, warmth in the caramel leather and wood highlights of the furniture. A couple of abstract, big white paintings added to the effect. It fit Daniel's energy, from what I could see in the time I'd shared with him.

Now we were almost done with the second bottle of wine, after having enjoyed a delicious Peruvian meal that Ale called tallarín a la huancaína con lomo.

"Honestly? I think Daniel is very lucky that I am a good cook. His parents are Venezuelan, not Peruvian like mine, but we all know Peruvian food is top tier."

She cast her eyes at me with a challenge.

I lifted a conciliatory hand her way. "I will not dispute that right now. Perú and Chile may have a little competitive thing going on on more than one front, but I will not disrespect you, especially after the work you put in. The meal wasdelicious, Alejandra."

She drank more of her wine and smiled at me. "Fine. I can be at peace with you, I suppose."

Eva snickered by my side. Neither she nor I had drunk much of our second glass, but Ale and Daniel were a bit more relaxed with their drinking than us. It wasn't hard to go through a couple of bottles of wine over a double date dinner. The sound my wife had made was likely authentic and sober.

"Peace?" Eva asked. "That's a tall order. This man keeps on proving to me that he lives life to its fullest and, sometimes, that means he does things I never imagined seeing with my own two eyes."

I smirked. It probably said something about my personality that I didn't mind that she made fun of me. In fact, it made me want to encourage her, have her laugh, even if it was at me.

"What did he do?" Ale asked.

"Aside from the ten deliveries we've had in the past couple of weeks, you know what he did? He flew his tailor in from New York!"

Mirth covered her face. Her eyes twinkled. A joyful Eva was a sight to behold.

I let my grin stretch and took her teasing with no issues. "I need new suits. The ones I brought are not being taken care of properly. We set up a nice postal program for me. Laguna Island may not have a dry cleaner, but you do have a post office."

They all laughed.

"I heard about the tailor," Ale said. "The town people think it's cute."

"See?" I winked at Eva. "I'm cute."

She smiled but rolled her eyes. I still couldn't get her to laugh at something I said. It was okay. I'd keep working at it.

"The town likes you overall," Daniel added, "but that could also be because of Eva."

"Are we the town's power couple, then?" I asked. "Even if it's only because I exist in the glow of your popularity."

"Stop." Eva pursed her lips. "What I hear when you're not around is that people are excited overall."

"Not everyone is." Daniel ran his fingers up and down the stem of his wine glass. "Some are unhappy."

"The heritage committee in particular," Ale said. "My sister, Ren, and her friend Pri have been keeping track of some of the conversations happening at the library."

Humor quieted in Eva's features. "The heritage committee gets together in an office in Town Hall, but hosts meetings for the town at large at the library."

"No one shows up." Ale's mouth quirked. "Even so, they think they should be the ones making the decisions about how the town moves forward."

"Why?" I asked.

Ale shrugged. "Because they're old. They think they're the town's wise council."

Eva sighed. "You didn't know you'd be in the middle of small-town politics when you moved in, did you?"

"It shouldn't surprise you that the world of boards and shareholders is very much like that, too. Politics and big egos that act like toddlers."

"You're right." Eva toasted me with a tip of her glass, before she took another sip. "I'm not surprised."