Page 80 of Stuck in Paradise with You

Now, it’s my turn to take care of her, try to put her at ease, to the extent she’ll let me. After all, isn’t it my fault she’s here in the first place? My idiotic friend playing creator of the universe and delving into things he has no business messing with to get her here?

I have a lot of questions about Joe arranging Carrie’s being here on Charithonia – like why, after all these years, did Joe think it was necessary to force Carrie and me to spend a weektogether on his island? What did he possibly think this could achieve except more heartache for one or both of us?

But I can’t focus on that at the moment because I need to concentrate on Carrie, getting her through this storm calmly and safely. Getting her back to New York in one piece physically and mentally.

Shit, she’s going to think I was involved in this whole thing. That I’ve set her up somehow. She’ll never believe that her being here has all been constructed by Joe and his ludicrous ideas and I had no idea it was happening.

Then I go and sleep with her.Double shit. She’ll think I was in on it all and then I conned her into going to bed with me.

No. Far from it.Shecame tomypod.

But as she sits across from me at this table, looking up to me through her eyelashes, smoldering, I won’t be sorry for what happened last night. I can’t be. Even though she ripped out my fucking heart, again, and I’m pissed beyond measure at Joe for this entire thing, I can’t be sorry about the way it felt to be with her again, to have her in my arms, in my bed. To be inside her, connected to her. To beusagain.

I’m playing white and I choose to move the pawn in front of my king forward two squares. Carrie scoffs. ‘Of course, move your pawn first. You do love a pawn in your games, don’t you?’

Animosity is literally dripping off her. If I had any doubt as to whether there was an ulterior meaning to her words about playing this game, it’s gone. She put her resting bitch on ice for the sake of the kids and now, it’s back with extra zest.

‘It’s the safest first move in the game book,’ I tell her.

‘Ah, yes, because you always play by the rules.’ She doesn’t even look at me as she speaks. Not until she moves her knight to F6.

I tsk. She’s bold. ‘There’s a fine line between confidence and recklessness, Carrie.’

The lids of her eyes partially cover her bright irises as her jaw stiffens. ‘Don’t I know it,’ she says. ‘I’ve crossed it too much recently.’

I’m fairly certain she means just hours ago. She thinks what happened between us last night was reckless. She’s probably right. Yet her words hurt. Irrationally so. I shouldn’t care if she thought last night was a mistake. It was. I knew that the moment I woke up alone in my pod.

And this is all the fault of my supposed best friend, who, for the record, I’d like to loathe right now, but he’s cuddling his scared kids and I don’t have the capability.

I should tell Carrie about it. Come clean on Joe’s behalf. But she’s going to be livid. Her client set this whole thing up and who knows who else was in on it. She’ll think I was and I know how much her career means to her, how much it has always meant to her. So much more than me, evidently, and I don’t dare tell her the truth she deserves.

I move my rook to E3. As I do, there’s another fierce gust of wind, more hurtling of debris outside, and the pressure in the air climbs.

Carrie brings her hands to her ears, wincing with discomfort I know she’s feeling because I feel it too. Jessie and Woody start howling, crying at either the noise or their own ear pain. Carrie gets out of her seat like a lightning bolt, rushing to the dogs and hugging Jessie, who’s a willing recipient of her affection. I’m not a dog lover the way Carrie clearly is but the dogs’ distress is making the kids’ tears worse, so I follow Carrie’s lead and hold Woody in the same way she’s cradling Jessie.

I don’t know how long the four of us – Carrie, me and the two dogs – sit on the floor like this until the pressure finally dissipates. The noise outside subsides.

Henry opens the shutters on the windows, jumping back up on the tabletop to look out. The sun is shining for the first time in what feels like days.

‘We’re in the eye of the storm,’ Henry says, and I follow his lead to see out of the narrow window. ‘I’m going out to take a look.’

‘Is that wise?’ Roy asks.

‘Are you crazy?’ Alisha adds.

‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience; I can’t not go,’ Henry tells them. ‘I’ll close the doors behind me and I’ll only be a minute or two. The eye is so wide, we’ve got a while before Isabel comes back full strength.’

I don’t want to be a fool but the guy’s got a point. I wish there wasn’t a hurricane. I wish none of us were stuck down here and afraid, that these stunning Caribbean islands wouldn’t be hit. But since itishappening, I sort of want to see it.

Whether it’s adrenaline or excitement, or just morbid curiosity, I follow Henry to the staircase to leave the basement.

‘Mom, can we go?’ Noah asks.

‘One hundred percent no!’ Ella replies. ‘Uncle Luke has a death wish.’

‘I won’t be long, buddy,’ I tell Noah, unwilling to relent.

Dave types in the code to open the door at the top of the stairs and Henry moves up first. As I climb, Carrie follows. I turn to her. ‘Absolutely not. You’re staying.’

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