Page 80 of Winter in Paradise
“I called you and told you the truth,” Cash says.
“You did not,” Baker says. “I did.”
“You did?” Cash says. “I did, too.”
“Too little, way too late,” Ayers says. She never wants to see either of them again, and this really hurts because she liked them both. She’s also worried that she’ll never be rid of them now because they’re Maia’s brothers. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. I’m back together with Mick.”
“No,” Baker says.
“Yes,” Ayers says. “I was with him last night.”
She relishes saying this, even though a part of her is ashamed about taking Mick back so readily. She called him, and he was at her house half an hour later with an order of oxtail stew from De’ Coal Pot, plus a side of pineapple rice, plus one perfect red hibiscus blossom, which he stuck in a juice glass. He’d begged her for another chance. He’d made a mistake and it would never happen again.
Ayers had succumbed, even though she knew it would happen again—just as soon as he hired the next girl who looked like Brigid. But unlike these two, Mick was a known quantity. And he lived here.
Tourists, she thinks, are nothing but heartbreak.
CASH
The bad news is, he can’t have Ayers.
The good news is, Baker can’t have her, either.
She hates them both.
It’s a knockout punch, but Cash admires Ayers’s principles. He would hate them, too, if he were her.
They leave the pool and head back to the kitchen, where Irene, Huck, and Maia are sitting at the table in silence. It feels like they’ve interrupted something, or maybe they came in on the tail end of a conversation.
Huck stands. “We should probably go.”
“But wait,” Irene says. “The ashes.”
“I’m leaving,” Ayers says. “I’ll walk to the bottom of the hill and call my boyfriend to come pick me up.”
“I’ll drive you home,” Huck says. He looks at Irene. “I’ll run Ayers home and then I’ll come back to pick up Maia. Forty minutes. Will that be enough time to do what you have to do?”
“Plenty,” Irene says.
Cash, Baker, and Maia follow Irene down the eighty steps to the private beach. A few minutes later finds the children of Russell Steele, along with the wife he betrayed for thirteen years, tossing chunks and silt into the Caribbean. No one says anything. No one cries.
Irene saves a handful of ashes in the bag. “I’m taking these home for Russ’s mother.” She smiles at Maia. “Your grandmother. She’s ninety-seven.”
“Really?” Maia says.
“And you look just like her,” Irene says.
Cash has tried not to study Maia’s face too carefully—he doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable or self-conscious—but he agrees with Irene: there is something about Maia that strongly resembles Milly.
He replays Ayers’s words in his head. I never met your father, but he spent years lying to my best friend. All I can think is not only did he have no scruples, he had no soul.
Cash feels that’s too harsh. He wants to think that Russ was more than just what happened down here. Russ had spent years and years providing for their family in a job he disliked, and he had always been an involved, enthusiastic father. When Cash was little, Russ would hold onto his hands, let Cash walk up his legs, and then flip him over in a skin-the-cat. Two years ago, Russ had handed Cash the keys to two prime pieces of Denver real estate. He hadn’t objected to the name Savage Season Outdoor Supply; he had even come to Denver for the ribbon cuttings. He had believed in Cash more than Cash had believed in himself.
And yet there’s no denying that Russ made a terrific mess of things. The money for those stores had come from… where?
Cash is the first one back up the stairs.
He may feel differently at some point, but for now, he’s glad to be rid of the man.
