Eli was able to enjoy his vacation, mostly because Lillian was gone most of the day, working with Mr. Anderson. This allowed Eli to relax on the beach along with Chase, which really helped to mend the friendship that had grown so distant. Eli also liked going on long walks, admiring all the beautiful scenery.
A few days later, Eli, Chase and Samuel were just walking back home from the ocean, when they saw a car parked in front of their cabin. Lillian was about to step into it, and they saw Mr. Anderson sitting inside.
"Forget a folder here," she said.
"Ah great, you're all here," said Mr. Anderson. "I wanted to invite you over to my house tomorrow night. I have a special guests arriving, who I'm sure you'll all be impressed with. It's someone very famous who you've all heard of, my very own step-daughter – "
"Faith Diaz," said Eli.
"Er, yes," said Mr. Anderson, frustrated from being interrupted. "You already knew she was my step-daughter."
"Yes sir," smiled Eli. "We've already met."
"You have?" he said incredulously.
"Many times, sir, when she was staying in Toronto this summer. I even danced with her once. All of us have seen her, in fact."
"You are a strange young man," Mr. Anderson laughed. He did not sound like he really believed him.
A few hours passed, and Samuel and Chase were on the front of the cabin playing ball, while Eli sat in the back stretched on a lawn chair reading. Suddenly, he heard someone running down the side of the house and calling.
"Come quick!" said Samuel. "We've got company, come see!"
Curious, Eli dropped his book and followed him. Chase was standing by the door, looking down the road where he saw three people walking towards them, Lillian, a pretty young woman with red hair, and her, Faith Diaz. He suddenly felt his heart start beating faster.
"I think we owe the honour of this visit to you," Chase chuckled. "At least, I doubt Faith Diaz walked straight down here to see me." Eli did not have time to respond to this, when the three women were right in front of them.
"Hey all," said Lillian, positively glowing. "I was Mr. Anderson's house when these lovely ladies arrived. When I told them about the guests I had back home, they wanted to come right down to see you!"
"Hello everyone, it's nice to see you again," said Faith. She looked particularly at Eli, and smiled slightly. Eli, arms folded in front of his chest, nodded back at her. "And this is my cousin, she's going to be spending Christmas with us. Grace Griffin, these are Chase and Samuel Lewis, and their friend Eli Bennett."
"It's wonderful to meet you," she said, her face bright, her eyes sparkling. She was quite a contrast to the withdrawn and stone-faced Faith standing next to her. Eli recognized the name – Grace Griffin. It had been in the email sent by Carter Brown. This was Daniel Griffin's sister, the guy who Chloe was supposed to marry.
Lillian invited them to stay, as they were planning on having barbeque that night, and they readily accepted. Grace Griffin was fun all night. She was friendly, funny, spent the whole time talking and telling them about herself, and asking about everyone else. Eli could not hold it against her that her brother was inadvertently hurting his brother. She had not nothing to do with that, but she was sweet and cool.
She could not help compare her with Faith, who was sitting right next to her. Faith might have been more attractive, with a better body, and her long dark hair, but what did it matter. She was quiet the whole meal, she seemed so uncomfortable eating barbeque at the picnic table, probably wishing she could leave this "inferior" company and return to her step-father's mansion. Her natural beauty was faded by her sour expression, whereas Grace's looks were improved by her geniality. He also knew Faith had much more of a hand in hurting her brother than Grace did.
When they were about finishing up, Faith coughed a few times and then said, "So, Eli, how's everything back home?"
"Good, good." Suddenly an idea came to him. "My brother Jacob was in New York for a while, did you know? I wonder if you ever saw him?"
He knew perfectly well that she hadn't, but he wanted to see how she'd react, if he could figure out if he was as involved as Carter had been in separating Jacob and Chloe. She looked a bit confused, he thought, when she answered no.
They said nothing else to each other that day except goodbye.