"Bennett, Cherie - Sunset Island 011 - Sunset Paradise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bennett Cherie)

"Hey, you're getting sand on the cushions," Carrie said, swatting at Sam's feet.
Sam sat up. "You really like that Matt guy, huh?" she asked Carrie.
Carrie shrugged. "He's okay."
"You like him!" Sam whooped. "You know you like him!"
"Okay, I like him," Carrie agreed grudgingly. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to do anything about it."
"Feeling guilty?" Sam asked.
"Leave her alone," Emma admonished Sam, pulling her T-shirt over her head.
"Sam's right," Carrie sighed, reaching down to untie her sneakers. "It's crazy! How
can I be so attracted to this guy when I'm in love with Billy?"
"It's really okay, Carrie," Emma said. "You're not married or engaged or anything, you know."
"And you're also on vacation in paradise," Sam added. "Nothing here is realЧit's all a big fantasy. Therefore it doesn't count, no matter what you do."
"Oh, is that so?" Carrie said with a laugh. "Meaning calories I eat here won't go to my hips, no matter what?"
"You got it," Sam agreed. "It's magic." She got off the couch and stretched. "I need a shower, and maybe a nap before dinner," she said. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the red light on their phone was blinking. "Hey, you guys have a message," she told them.
Emma sat down in a chair and called down to the desk. "Hello. Is there a message for room eighteen-oh-four, please?" Her face paled and her jaw dropped open. "Are you sure?" she asked the operator. "Yes, yes, I've got it. Thank you." She hung up the phone and sat there.
"Is everything all right?" Carrie asked, going over to Emma.
"You're not going to believe this, but my father is here."
Ч~*o on raradise Island?" Sam asked.
"Yes," Emma replied faintly.
"But how did he even know you were here?" Carrie asked.
"And what's he doing here?" Sam added.
"I don't know," Emma said, dialing a room-to-room number. "But I'm going to find out."
"Yes?" came Emma's father's voice through the phone.
"Hi, Dad, it's me," Emma said. "What are you doing here?"
"Hey, that's no way for my little girl to greet me," her father chided.
"Is everything all right?" Emma asked, ignoring his remark.
"Sure," her father boomed. "So how's my girl?"
Emma closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose to ward off the headache that was rapidly coming upon her.
"How did you know I was here?" Emma asked her father.
"You left a phone number on the machine at the whatchamacallits," her father said. "The Horowitzes?"
"The Hewitts," Emma corrected him.
"Right," her father said. "Well, I had to stop down here to see a business associate
soon, anyway, so I thought I'd come down now and surprise you."
"Well, this is certainly a surprise," Emma said, her head swimming. "Is Valerie with you?" she added, naming her father's much-younger fiancee.
There was silence on the phone. "Valerie and I have parted ways," her father finally said.
"Oh," was all Emma said. She had never liked Valerie, and had let her father know as much in the past.
"Yes, well ..." her father said, seemingly lost for words. "How about if I take you to dinner tonight? The Salon is the best restaurant on the islandЧprivate, can't get in without a special invitation."
"I can't, Dad," Emma said. "I'm here with my two friends, Samantha and Carrie."
"The more the merrier," her father said grandly. "I'll meet the three of you in the hotel lobby at nine. It's formal," he added, "the only place on this island that is. See you then."
"This is so bizarre," Emma said, hanging up the phone.
"What? Tell us!" Sam demanded.
"Well, the good news is he and Minnie MouseЧmy almost-stepmotherЧhave bro-
ken up," Emma said. "The bad news is, he's taking all three of us to dinner."
"What's bad about that?" Carrie asked. "I was sorry I didn't get to meet him last spring when you went down to Florida to see him."
"This is not a cozy family situation," Emma said with a sigh. She closed her eyes and thought about her feuding parents' seemingly endless divorce, which had only recently been finalized. Much to Emma's mortification, each parent had become engaged to a person in their early twenties.
Frankly, she had a terrible relationship with both of her parents. Her mother was so self-involved, childish, and manipulative that Emma simply couldn't stand to be around her for any length of time. And while she actually kind of liked her father, she didn't really know him very weH. He'd always been too busy trying to prove to his wife that he could earn a fortune as well as marry into one, and he'd hardly spent any time with Emma when she was growing up.
Now that she was an adult, he bought her outrageously expensive presents to show his love. And when it suited him, he pretended that they had a real relationship. But Emma found it hard to overcome the reality of the situation,
"Look," Emma told her friends, "you two don't have to go to dinner with us. I'll meet up with you later."
"I don't mind," Sam said with a shrug.
"Neither do I," Carrie insisted. "Besides, you'll need moral support."
Emma smiled at them. "Thanks," she said simply. "Oh, by the way, he's taking us to The Salon. It's formal."