Page 32 of Stuck in Paradise with You

‘It was never part of the plan that you would get caught up in a storm,’ she continues.

‘None of this was planned, Rachel. You couldn’t have predicted Eric being sick, or the storm. And it’s… stunning here. I’m having a, ah, nice time. Lots of business but in a beautiful place.’

If only the man who smashed my heart to smithereens wasn’t here too.

‘As for the storm,’ I continue, ‘apparently, it still might not hit the island. Even if it does, I spoke to Joe about it yesterday, and whether I should, ah, leave the island.’

Because I can’t stand another minute in Luke Chalmers’s company.

‘He assured me that he has a large, reinforced steel and concrete shelter under his house, which is big enough for all of us to weather the storm, so to speak. Animals too, he said. So you’ve no need to worry. I’ll be back in New York and back to the office in no time.’

‘Okay, Carrie. It sounds like you have everything in hand. Great work. Keep me posted on how things progress over there, won’t you?’

‘Sure, will do. Have a great day, Rachel.’

14

LUKE

‘It’s your call, boss,’ Henry is saying, clearly holding back on his true feelings as he speaks – his voice reflective of the position of his shoulders up by his ears, contrary to his words.

I’ve walked into the bar on the terrace to meet the others and head down to the beach, where we’ll tender out to Joe’s superyacht.

‘Look, Henry…’ Joe says, his hand on his shoulder in a rare show of tenderness – not that he isn’t a big bundle of gooey soft-center, he is, but he doesn’t often show it so openly with his staff. ‘The sea’s calm today, so let’s enjoy her. We have hurricane provisions fully stocked and fuel for the island’s generators. If Isabel doesn’t change course overnight, then I promise we’ll spend all day tomorrow preparing for her visit on Friday.’

Henry nods, clearly still worried about the hurricane. I won’t lie, I am too. This morning, the news said Isabel is definitely going to be a category five hurricane when she makes landfall, wherever she makes landfall. They’re predicting gusts of up to 285 kilometers per hour, and they still think she’s bound for the Leeward Islands.

This won’t be like the tropical storms Joe and I have ridden out before during summer breaks from college and work trips to the Far East. They were menacing level get-in-my-path-and-I’ll-make-those-unsteady-drunk-legs-even-wobblier, but Isabel, if she comes, wherever she comes, will be menacing level so-much-as-look-at-me-and-I’ll-eat-you-alive.

‘Okay, boss,’ Henry says.

‘Henry, everyone on this island is family to me. I won’t let anything bad happen. We have one of the safest bunkers in the Caribbean, enough rum to sink a pirate ship and a fresh pack of playing cards. There couldn’t be anywhere better than Charithonia to weather this big lady, I’m telling you.’

I clear my throat. ‘Sorry to interrupt.’

‘Chalmers! You set?’ Joe asks, holding out his arms so that his pineapple and frangipani-emblazoned shirt fully opens to his chest of thick hair.

‘Sure am,’ I say as Alisha and Ella, four bouncing kids and two tail-wagging dogs come onto the terrace. The women are laden with bags and brightly colored inflatables – crocodile, flamingo, unicorn and dolphin – which they dump down onto the deck with a thud.

‘I’ll take these down to the tender,’ Henry says, already getting on with the task.

‘Where’s your stuff?’ Ella asks me.

I shrug and hold my hands out, proving that I’ve turned up for the day in a pair of aqua-blue swim shorts, a white t-shirt and a pair of Havaianas. ‘The boat’s already got everything I could possibly need and the great company is coming with me.’

‘Oh, you’re having one of your charismatic moods this morning. Your mother really should have spelled your name with an r, shouldn’t she, Chalmers?’ Alisha jokes. ‘Speaking of charming people,’ she adds, coming to my side and nodding in the direction of Carrie, who is approaching, wearing a wide-rimmed beige hat and a short black cover up that could just as easily pass for sophisticated or sexy-as-sin. ‘Have you told her that we aren’t together yet?’

‘Huh?’ My mind has blanked. I freaking hate myself for it but it’s true. In her dress, Carrie’s legs go on for days and her plump, firm breasts are framed by the neckline of the material. As much as I wish that Alisha making me realize that Carrie is single yesterday had no effect on me, it seems to have obliterated the dam that was controlling my salacious thoughts. ‘I— Ah— Pardon?’

As Carrie slips briefly out of view to come through the arch from the walkway onto the terrace, Alisha places the tip of her finger under my chin and closes my mouth for me. ‘Drooling isn’t a good look on any man, honey, charming or not.’

I look her way. ‘I’m notdrooling. I was just?—’

‘Yeah?’

Carrie briefly stops to ruffle Jessie’s – then impatiently attention-seeking Woody’s – furry ears before heading our way.What’s so good about her, traitors?I purse my lips, scowling at the dogs as I silently fume at their betrayal. Just like everyone else around here, they seem to think the sun shines out of her ass.

She duped me once too.

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