Evenings at the Argentine Club (12 page)

“That’s wonderful, Eric. It really is.”

“Don’t go back to your dad because you think you owe him something. You’ll be miserable the rest of your life. I feel guilty,
and I wish I had done things differently, but I’m not sorry I followed my passion. I would have made a lousy lawyer.”

“And I’ll make a lousy restaurant owner, I know. But it’s the easiest road.”

“So, you’ll go back to doing something you don’t like, because you’re afraid go out on your own?”

“I am.” Her voice was soft and sweet. “Pathetic, I know, but I’m scared to try something risky and fall flat on my face.”

“Follow your heart and you won’t.” He smiled. “Hey, that’s what I did when I left home and when I decided to return. Something
inside me said it was time. And everything has felt right ever since.”

She smiled. “All right,” she said. She stepped in front of him and offered her hand. “Fifteen percent?”

He never paid a designer that much money. But he pressed his palm to hers. This was the second time they shook hands. And
the deals they made were getting progressively more interesting. “You got it.” He held on to her hand.

“My heart is beating out of control. This is such a big step for me.”

He felt the pulse on her wrist with his thumb. Gently, he rubbed it. “What, doing a little remodel job with me?”

“No. Moving on with my life.”

He squeezed her hand, then released it. “And here I thought it was holding my hand that was sending you into overdrive.”

She laughed. Nervously? “Let’s go give some of our old friends a call now. Okay?” she said.

Eric watched her walk out the sliding glass door into the backyard. He’d spent the last seven years enjoying temporary women—not
because he was a jerk, but because he never stayed in one town long enough to develop a long-term relationship. Being at home,
with family, and old friends like Victoria made him think that maybe he was missing out on one of life’s great gifts—real
connections to other people.

They sat on the edge of the backyard pool, their legs dangling into an empty pit that was in need of serious cleaning and
repair. The rest of the yard looked just as neglected, with weeds growing around wide patches of dirt. The wooden fence needed
to be torn down, especially since many boards were already loose and half falling into the yard.

“So what are we proposing. Dinner? Drinks? Dancing?”

“How about all three? I’ll book one of those dinner cruises off of Newport Beach, and buy out the boat for our party.”

“Ah, that sounds nice, but—”

“Great. Let’s do it.”

“You’re going to pay for that?”

“Sure.”

“All right.” She shrugged. “When?”

“Next weekend?”

“Too soon. People might have plans. How about next month? If we’re going to be working on this house, you’ll still be in town.”

“Yep. Okay, next month it is.”

Eric had a list of about five friends to call, Victoria about a dozen. She started with those she was still in contact with.
Eduardo was first on her list, because he not only went to their high school but was a member of the Argentine Club. She called
him at the auto shop and told him she and Eric wanted to get a group of friends together .

“Sounds great, Victoria,” he said. “But you know Kelly plans all our events. And we have the kids to find sitters for. I’m
not sure we’ll be able to make it.”

“Why don’t you talk to her and call me back?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that. Talk to you soon, nena.”

Victoria moved on to Susana, even though she wasn’t her favorite person, and regretted doing so almost immediately. Susana
started in about what a disgrace it was that Eric showed up at the club after all these years and didn’t even warn his parents
first. Then had the nerve to make a scene by fighting with Steve.

“Really,” she said, “I’m surprised you’re even talking to him, much less helping him find friends.”

She wasn’t helping him find friends. She was helping him reconnect with friends, and Susana obviously wasn’t one of them.
“Our parents are close friends, Susana. How can I not talk to him?” she asked quietly, standing and moving away from Eric,
even though he was on his own phone and probably wasn’t paying attention to her conversation.

“Well, of course we have to be polite, but you don’t have to become his best buddy. Though, you and he
were
kind of close, weren’t you? Did you actually, you know, have a relationship?”

Victoria rolled her eyes. “Susana, he’s going to book a dinner cruise for us all. I think it’ll be nice.”

“Sure, now that he has money, he wants to buy us back.”

Although Victoria had had more than one unpleasant thought about Eric through the years—and had once even agreed that he was
dog shit for thinking he was better than they were and leaving—she would rather hang out with Eric a million times more than
she would with Susana. Especially now that she knew that there was more to the story than what they had all believed.

“Susana, I think he came back because he’s lonely. He missed his family. He missed us. Can’t you let the past go and help
welcome him back?”

“He was always an arrogant prick who shunned his Latino heritage. He wanted to go out there and pretend he was something he
wasn’t. Let him go back, Victoria. Don’t get involved with him. Do yourself a favor.”

“Yeah,” she said, wondering if everyone, Susana and herself included, weren’t all a little jealous of Eric. “But you might
want to think of Lucia.”

“I’ll be polite to him at the club. But I’m not going out to dinner with him.”

And that was that. After she ended the call, she decided to change tactics and not call anyone from the Argentine Club after
all. She’d call their other high school friends instead.

An hour later, she’d gotten five yeses, and Eric had gotten two.

“Are you sure you want to book an entire dinner cruise for so few people?”

“It’ll be almost twenty of us with spouses and girlfriends and boyfriends. It’ll be fun,” he said, excited.

Victoria smiled. She didn’t care what Susana thought. Eric was okay, and she was glad he’d come home.

M
id-week Jaqueline met with the ladies at the Argentine Club, and they completed their plans to bring in an Argentine artist
to talk about his work and display his paintings. But her mind was on Victoria and Victor. They weren’t speaking to each other,
and neither one would tell her why.

Lucia passed the paperwork across the table for Jaqueline to sign. Jaqueline stared down at it, then scrawled her name and
passed it along.

“So, Jaqueline, you must be so excited about Victor’s expansion plans,” Nelly said.

Jaqueline took the stack of mini art prints and fixed them back into the binder. The artist was good, though she didn’t know
much about art. She glanced at Nelly. “Expansion?”

“For the restaurant.”

What was this woman talking about? Nelly was a nice person, but… well, maybe she was getting tired of the politics at the
Argentine Club. All the work it required, and for what? “Oh, the restaurant,” she said, pretending she knew what Nelly was
talking about. “Yes, it’s going well.”

“Hector invested quite a bit. I guess he must really believe in Victor’s idea.”

Invested? What, money? Jaqueline smiled. Though she wasn’t pleased that her husband was asking their friends for money. Was
he crazy? Were they having money problems? “Really? He liked Victor’s idea?”

“He won’t stop talking about it. How about you? Are you nervous about it?”

She was nervous, all right. “A little,” she admitted.

Lucia frowned. “What are you two talking about?”

“Victor’s restaurant expansion,” Nelly said.

“I didn’t know he was doing that,” Lucia said.

Neither did Jaqueline. But she planned on finding out what was going on immediately. “I’ll have to tell you about it later.
Oh, by the way, I’m proposing we have a Mexican fiesta day in celebration of our closest Latino neighbors,” she said to the
rest of the group. “Here’s my proposal.” She passed out a sheet of paper that she spent all last night preparing with Victoria’s
help. It included having a variety of performers, primarily Hugo’s band, and indulging in a selection of Mexican food samples.
She gave them an estimate of the cost.

She ignored all the frowns and mumbling about the unprecedented idea. “Read it over. We can discuss it next time. If it works
out, we might want to consider highlighting a different Latino country every quarter.”

Lucia made a “why not” face and then smiled. “I kind of like that idea. Just think of the variety of foods we can try and
the diversity of entertainment we can enjoy.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Jaqueline said, and stood. “I’ll see you all next Sunday.”

“Well, hold on, let’s walk out to the parking lot together. I want to tell you something,” Lucia said.

“Sure.”

Lucia hooked her arm with Jaqueline’s. “Good news, loca.”

“Qué?”

“Eric said Victoria agreed to work with him to fix up a house.”

“Fix up his house? I didn’t even know he had a house.”

“Not
his
house.
A
house. He buys and sells properties. I told you, remember?”

“Oh, yes.” Was this what Victor was so upset about? She felt very misinformed about the things going on with her family. And
she was going to get to the bottom of all of it.

“Well,” Lucia smiled. “That’s good news, no? They’re going to be spending more time together.”

Jaqueline nodded absently. “Maybe. Victor is angry at her, so it might not be so good.”

Lucia made a growling sound in the back of her throat. “He needs to give that girl some space. She has to be allowed to spend
some time with people her own age.”

“Lucia, you’re so transparent.” She gave her a quick hug. “I’ve got to go.”

“If this works between them, we will have major celebrating to do. My best friend will become my in-law.”

Jaqueline laughed. “Let’s keep our fingers crossed.”

Victoria told Douglas about helping Eric with his flip. “Do you think we can keep my hours flexible? I’m not sure when he’s
going to need me.”

“Of course.” He rang up a customer’s purchase. “Here you go, Mrs. Thorpe. If it doesn’t look perfect in your living room,
you bring it back, understand?”

Mrs. Thorpe took her purchase and held it close to her body. “It’s not coming back, Douglas.” She smiled. “Good-bye. ’Bye,
Victoria.”

Victoria hurried to open the door for her. “Take care, Mrs. Thorpe.”

“I’ve got it, I’ve got it. I’m old, not feeble.”

Victoria held her hands up, and stepped out of her way.

“Excuse me,” Mrs. Thorpe said, practically running into someone on the sidewalk.

As Victoria turned back in, Douglas called her over. He held out a brochure. “I’ve been meaning to give you this. Now might
be the perfect time.”

Victoria looked at the pamphlet for a college. They were offering a special night class for store owners on designing displays.
Looked interesting. “You want me to go to this?”

“No. I thought you might take a look at the college. They have an interior design program. Since you already have all of your
lower division classes, you might be able to complete this fairly quickly.”

Victoria flipped open the glossy pamphlet. She arched an eyebrow and looked at Douglas. “I’m too old to go back to school.”

Douglas laughed. “Sweetheart, I wish I was as old as you.” He walked out from behind the counter. “If you’re seriously thinking
of pursuing a career in decorating, it might be worth taking a look.”

“Maybe.” Even as she heard her voice say it, she hated her indecisiveness. Why was she always so damned wishy-washy? “So you
think helping Eric with this flip is a good idea?”

“Yes, I think it’s a good idea on many levels. I’m going to go unpack some boxes in the back. Watch the store?”

“Sure. Wait, Douglas.”

He paused.

“I’m excited and scared and worried. I think I can really be a good interior designer, and I think I’d love it. But what if
I’m wrong? What if I fall flat on my face?”

“So what if you do?” He turned around and gripped the counter with both hands, and his eyes that always looked sort of sad,
twinkled. “Would that be worse than knowing for the rest of your life that you wanted something but were too chicken to go
for it?”

“That’s a good question.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I thought so, too.” He winked and turned away.

He left her alone in the store with her thoughts. Taking on Eric’s interior decorating job must be a good idea, because she
was excited about life for the first time in so long.

Stunned, as if someone had hit him over the head with a side of beef, Victor walked back to his car. Away from Douglas’s novelty
shop, away from his daughter. He’d come to talk to her. To tell her that he’d hired a manager because it was the right thing
to do, but that he saw her point also and was ready to include her in more of the restaurant’s daily operations. He was ready
to concede, at least in part, that Victoria was capable of handling more. An altruistic gesture on his part, he thought.