Great-Aunt Sophia's Lessons for Bombshells Read Online Free PDF Page A

you.”
    Catherine’s lower lip began to tremble.
    “Don’t blame yourself,” Sophia soothed. “Grace is beautiful. She can’t help it if the thought of touching you makes her stomach turn.”
    “What do you know of love, you sadistic old bitch?” Catherine spit. “I don’t see anyone here who loves you !” Catherine shoved back her chair and ran for the house, her sobs carrying on the breeze.
    “Cat!” Grace called, shoving back her own chair.
    “Don’t bother, darling. She’ll be fine. You’ll only encourage her if you chase after her. It’s what she wants.”
    Grace shook her head. “You deliberately humiliated her.”
    “She humiliated herself by mooning over someone who had rejected her. She’ll be better off for facing the truth.” Sophia took a sip of tea. “Don’t go after her.”
    “No matter what she feels, she’s my friend .” Grace turned on her heel and followed Catherine.

CHAPTER
    3
    D eclan felt Sophia’s grip on his arm tighten and knew she was in pain. “This is far enough, isn’t it? Shall we go back inside?”
    “No. Andrew said to walk as much as I could bear, and I can bear this. Besides, I’ve always loved the gardens at twilight. It’s enough to make me forget a twinge of discomfort now and then.”
    Declan knew it was more than a twinge. Andrew had shot steroids and lubricants directly into Sophia’s hip socket today in hopes of alleviating some of her pain. The more she moved, the better off she’d be, but Declan had a hard time watching the ripples of pain under the mask of placidity she wore on her stunning face. He looked instead to the sunset, glowing orange through the black silhouettes of trees. The cool garden paths wound across a private rocky headland of three acres, a piece of land that was now worth tens of millions but that Sophia had sworn she’d never sell.
    And why would she? Only a fool would sell a heaven on earth.
    “I’m trying to figure out why you treated your grand-niece and her friend so badly,” he said when they’d walked a bit farther. “Grace will probably leave in the morning, if she hasn’t already.”
    “What have you decided my motives were?”
    “I’m not sure I should say. None of them are flattering.”
    “Then I’m sure they’re all wrong. Come, tell me what nefarious purpose I had in mind.”
    He sighed. “At first I thought you were chasing her away because if she left, in your mind it meant you wouldn’t have to have the surgery.”
    “That would have been both illogical and cowardly.”
    “I know. So I moved on. I decided you were striking back for what you took to be an attack on yourself. Grace’s thesis is a slap in the face for someone like you.”
    Sophia laughed. “Her thoughts on beauty are those of an insecure child. They say much more about her than they do about me. Besides, you know me better than to think I would sink to giving tit for tat.”
    “No, you’re of the ‘dish served cold’ variety of vengeance takers.”
    “ Pshh . I’m above it all.”
    Declan laughed at the blatant lie, and they walked on to a view at the edge of the cliff. A wooden staircase was bolted into the rock, twisting down several stories to a narrow strip of beach. A fisherman stood on one of the rocks at the water’s edge, casting into the sea. It was probably Ernesto, Lali’s grandfather. “Do you think he catches anything?” Declan asked.
    “I don’t think that’s his goal; he’s more Buddhist monk than Hemingway. Catching a fish would disrupt the Zen.”
    They watched Ernesto for several minutes, the motions of his rod as hypnotic in their regularity as the rolling of the waves. “Stubborn old bastard,” Sophia murmured.
    They turned away. “Grace looks like you,” Declan said. “It’s hard to see at first because of the weight, but it’s there.”
    “I know.”
    “Is that what it was? Were you angry with her for looking like you and being so young?”
    “I’m angry at her for looking like me