Page 66 of Winter in Paradise
“Oh, Cash,” she says. “Please don’t make this complicated. You’re a great guy, you know I think that…”
“But you have the hots for Baker,” Cash says. “Because that’s how things always go. Women think I’m a great guy but they have the hots! for! Baker!” He’s shouting now, and he has attracted the attention of a West Indian policewoman, who crosses the street toward him. “You really shouldn’t be interested in either of us. Do you know why?”
“No,” Ayers says. “Why?”
“Russell Steele? Rosie’s boyfriend? The Invisible Man?” Cash says.
“Yes?” Ayers says. She sounds scared now. “Yes?”
“He was our father,” Cash says. And he hangs up the phone.
HUCK
Hard things are hard. And there’s no instruction manual when it comes to parenting—or in Huck’s case, step-grandparenting—a twelve-year-old girl.
His dinner with Irene, instead of heading in an amorous direction, as he had hoped, ended with a quandary. Irene was dead certain Maia was Russ’s blood daughter. Huck had been skeptical. Why wouldn’t Rosie have just said so? Why make up the story about the Pirate and then pretend the Invisible Man was a different guy? Rosie was prone to drama; maybe she wanted her life peopled like a Marvel comic.
To prove her point, Irene brought Huck a framed photograph: Rosie with an older gentleman, lying in a hammock. Russell Steele. But in the photo, Russ was wearing sunglasses. There was something in his face that was replicated in Maia’s face, but without seeing his eyes, Huck couldn’t be 100 percent sure. Then Irene scrolled through the pictures on her phone and found a good, clear picture of her husband’s face.
Yes, Huck thought. There was no denying it. Maia had the same half-moon eyebrows, the same slight flange to the tip of her nose, the exact same smile.
“Uncanny,” Huck said.
“She’s his,” Irene said.
“Yes.”
“Yes, you see it?”
“Impossible not to see it.” Huck remembered back to when he and Ayers told Maia that Rosie was dead. She had said, What about my father? She knew. They’d told her, maybe. She was twelve, old enough to understand. It also explained why Russell Steele paid for Rosie’s living expenses and Maia’s tuition. Huck had checked Rosie’s bank account balances. She had seven thousand in her checking and a whopping eighty-five thousand in savings, and it looked as though she might have some kind of account in the States. Huck would need to hire a lawyer to get access to that money on Maia’s behalf, and he supposed he would need to legally take custody, although his distrust of lawyers and his distaste for paying their exorbitant fees had kept him from doing anything just yet. The custody question was a moot point—or so he had assumed. No one on this island was going to dispute his claim to the girl, not even the Smalls, Rosie’s father’s people. So there was no sense of urgency. Until now. Maybe.
“I’d like to meet her,” Irene said.
Huck could not put the inevitable off any longer: he needed a cigarette.
“I’d like to smoke,” he said.
“I’ll join you,” she said.
They stepped out onto the deck and Huck lit up. He took a much-needed drag, then handed the cigarette to Irene. “Or I could light you your own.”
“A whole cigarette would be wasted on me,” Irene said, though she inhaled off his deeply. “I know she’s not related to me.”
“Just let me think a minute,” Huck said. “I need to consider Maia. Maia’s emotional state, Maia’s best interests.”
“I don’t think there are blueprints for this,” Irene said. “The circumstances are unique. I, for one, can’t accept the information that Russ has a child, a daughter, without wanting to meet her.”
“What do you hope to get out of it?” Huck asked.
“I’m not sure,” Irene said. “I loved him. She’s his. I think my motives are pure.”
“You think?”
“The boys—Baker and Cash—are her brothers.”
“Half brothers.”
“Fine, half brothers. But that’s still blood. That’s still family.”
