Page 14 of What Happens in Paradise
Huck thinks of the first time he saw Irene, her chestnut braid draped over one shoulder as she marched down the dock calling him “Mr. Powers.” Now that he knows her a little better, he realizes she doesn’t mess around nor suffer fools—but still, it was impressive, the way she talked herself onto his boat.
We just clicked.
Had Huck and Irene clicked? He would have a hard time saying they hadn’t.
Angler Cupcake.
There’s nothing like the wisdom of a twelve-year-old, Huck thinks. Maia was right. Huck misses Irene and that’s why he’s grumpy.
When they tie up back at the dock, Adam fillets the fish for the gentlemen and Kyle pours a shot of tequila for everyone. They clink glasses and throw back the shots. Kyle thanks Huck profusely and slips him a generous tip, which Huck nearly refuses because the guy has given Huck so much already. If nothing else, he has changed Huck’s mind about bachelor parties.
Temporarily, anyway.
They shake hands and say their goodbyes and Huck says maybe he’ll see them in town over the next few days, it’s not impossible, although Huck hasn’t been out since Rosie died.
“They were terrific!” Huck says to Adam once they’re gone. He slips Adam one of the hundreds that Kyle gave him. Those are the kind of men Huck would have as friends, if he had time for friends.
Adam stuffs the hundred in his pocket. “Cap,” he says. The boy looks green around the gills, downright seasick, as though he will be the one to upchuck off the back of the boat. And just like that, Huck is snapped out of the golden reverie that a good day out on the water provides. He’s back to real life: the money under his bed, the FBI, and whatever Adam has to tell him.
Huck decides to cut the kid a break and do the hard part for him. “You’re leaving me?” he says.
Adam nods morosely. “I’m moving to upstate New York to be with Marissa.”
Upstate New York? Huck thinks. What did this girl Marissa do to him?
“It’s cold in upstate New York,” Huck says. “It snows. A lot. And there’s no ocean.”
“I love her,” Adam says, and he swallows. “I’m in love with her.”
Huck nods. He yearns to tell Adam that, more than half the time, love dies, and it probably dies quicker in places like Oneida and Oneonta. But Huck won’t be that curmudgeonly skeptic today.
“They have lakes,” Huck says. “Great lakes. You can fly-fish.”
Adam looks so relieved that Huck’s afraid the boy might try to kiss him. “Yeah, that’s what I thought I’d do,” he says. “In the summer.”
Huck lights a cigarette and inhales deeply. “So you’ll leave in May, then? Or June?”
“A week from Tuesday,” Adam says.
A week from Tuesday, Huck thinks.
“Oneonta in January,” Huck says. “Must be love.”
That night after dinner—fresh, perfectly grilled wahoo that even Maia agrees is sublime—Huck heads out to the deck with his pack of Camel Lights and his cell phone.
Agent Vasco or Irene? He decides on one, then changes his mind and decides on the other. Then back, then back again.
Irene.
He’s almost more nervous about calling her than about calling the FBI. He is more nervous about calling her because he has no idea how the conversation will go.
She answers on the first ring. “Oh, Huck, is that you?”
Her voice stirs something in him. He exhales smoke. “It’s me.” He pauses. He had planned to say, I’m calling to check on you. Or I’m calling to see how you’re doing. But instead the words that fly out of his mouth are “I have a business proposition. My first mate, Adam, quit on me today and I can’t properly run my charter without a mate. So I’m calling to offer you a job.”
There’s a pause long enough for Huck to take a drag off his cigarette, consider the lights of the Westin below and the cruise ship headed to St. Croix in the distance, and castigate himself for acting like a fool. He should have gone with How’ve you been?
“What does it pay?” Irene asks.
