Page 47 of Stuck in Paradise with You

I decide to take him up on the offer and, with Jessie’s emotional support, I make my way onto the trampoline, accepting, I suppose on some level, a sort of truce for sunset.

Before I come to sit, I spot something on the surface of the water and a voice calls, ‘Turtle, starboard side.’ I look around for the source of the sound and eventually find Henry and Jake up in the crow’s nest above us.

‘Turtle!’ Noah says, bouncing up and running to the side of the boat, Luke darting after him. Thankfully, all of the kids are wearing life jackets but Luke catches Noah and sweeps him onto his knee, coming to sit on the side of the boat, his legs hanging down the side.

I think I move to get a better look of the elegant creature, gently swaying with the waves, but in doing so, I wind up taking a seat next to Luke and getting Jessie for company again. She flops her head down into my lap.

I’m here in the warm Caribbean, watching the sunset, a mesmerizing turtle floating in front of me, Luke by my side, a child on his lap, a dog on mine. In another time and place, in an alternate universe perhaps, this would have been the stuff dreams are made of.

I chance a glance at Luke and my breath catches when I find him already looking at me.

Six weeks.

We were only together for six weeks.

But these are the things we talked about for our future.

‘It’s hard to believe there’s a storm coming,’ Ella says, the others now all standing behind Luke, Noah, Jessie and me.

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Joe says. ‘Life is funny. When you think you’re cruising along, the universe throws you a curveball.’

It sure does.

‘Thankfully, lightning doesn’t strike the same spot twice.’

I only realize I’ve spoken those words loud enough for someone else to hear when Alisha says, ‘I’m not so sure about that. This won’t be Charithonia’s first hurricane.’

20

LUKE

Something is happening to me. Either I have a tummy bug, or my jellyfish sting – which, for the record, did freaking kill and has left whip marks across my thigh and torso – has caused lasting damage to my internal organs, or I’ve suddenly developed seasickness after years of sailing.Orsomething far worse has my stomach twisting and flipping and turning.

We’re all back on Charithonia, having been dropped to the beach by the tenders, making our way up to the main terrace back at Chateau Hettich, and though I’m talking to Toby, who is perched on my shoulders as I climb the steps up the rock face, I can’t help replaying Joe’s words to me back on the boat.

I’ve seen fewer fireworks on New Year’s Eve than you and Carrie set off when you’re together.

She sure does bring out a hot-headed version of me. In fact, I can’t wait until she’s gone later and I can resume my peaceful existence.

I’m justfinewithout Carrie in my life.

Totallyfine.

I’ve beenfinefor seven years.

But since Joe asked the question – ‘Are you fighting over the past, the present or your future?’ – I don’t know, it’s just sort of stuck with me.

It isn’t the future. It can’t be the future. There is no future for Carrie and me. She made sure there never could be; that’s what wrecked me so much. She’s part of a past box that was neatly compartmentalized from my present.

Except now she’s here because of flipping Eric’s stomach flu and the box is open. Its contents are spilling all over my present.

And like Joe said through a mouthful of banana bread, ‘Regardless of which it is, you owe it to yourself to find out.’

He’s right, I think.

But I don’t know if I have the courage it would take to delve into the depths of the box.

We reach the top of the stairs and there’s a shift in the jovial mood of the adults among us.

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