Page 64 of Troubles in Paradise
Colette Vasco stares at him with half a smile—incredulous? embarrassed? drunk?—and then disappears into the dark.
Huck climbs into his truck, lights another cigarette, and blows the smoke out the window.I hope you’re happy, Irene Steele,he thinks.You’ve ruined me.
He starts the engine, thinking,Go slow, stay left. Donkeys, get out of my way.
Ayers
During the first week of their stay on St. John, Ayers’s parents cover a lot of ground. On the very first day, they meet Baker and then take Mick and Ayers out to dinner. On their second day, they buy a two-bedroom time-share at the Westin from Baker, and Ayers experiences predictablymixed feelings. On the one hand, she’s comforted by this. On the other hand, she feels suffocated.
In the following days, Phil and Sunny hike the Reef Bay Trail, charter theSinging Dogwith Captains Stephen and Kelly to the BVIs (noTreasure Islandfor them; they want to sail), experience happy hour at both Woody’s and High Tide, snorkel with turtles at Salt Pond, dance to Miss Fairchild at the Beach Bar, buy matching hook bracelets at Bamboo, and kayak to Lime Out for tacos.
And yet somehow, they’re still underfoot. They wake Ayers up with chai lattes from Provisions, they swing by with containers of sesame noodles and spinach-artichoke dip from the North Shore Deli, they appear at La Tapa while Ayers is working and introduce themselves to the guests at Ayers’s tables until she has to ask them to either sit at the bar or leave. They choose the bar and end up getting into a deep conversation with Skip about his trust issues with women.
How is she ever going to survive them? When will they leave for Barbuda, Bequia?
The dinner with Mick was…illuminating. Ayers wonders if, in her parents’ minds, Mick is still her boyfriend. Maybe they haven’t yet fully absorbed the news of the breakup or the idea that Ayers is pregnant by someone else. At dinner at the Longboard—which unfortunately evoked the evening of their engagement—Mick was his most charming self, sucking up to Phil and Sunny in every possible way, asking about their travels, begging to see their pictures, giving Sunny too much encouragement about her prospective blog. Ayers bit her tongue and thought,Fake it to make it,all the while hoping the staff at the Longboard weren’t getting out their phones in the back to broadcast the news that Mick and Ayers were together again.
What Ayers realized while being smushed up in a booth next to Mick was that her feelings for him had changed.
She’d broken the engagement because she was smart—Mick would never stop cheating—but it hadn’t changed the fact that she loved him. Being pregnant with Baker’s baby hadn’t canceled out her feelings for Mick either. It was amazing the things that love could endure; nothing demonstrated this more than her ups and downs with Mick had. But at dinner with her parents, Ayers had been pleasantly surprised to find that she felt nothing for Mick other than a mixture of mild annoyance and nostalgic fondness. After Phil and Sunny headed back to Caneel, Mick walked Ayers to her truck and tried to kiss her. She ducked out of the way; she felt no attraction to him.Finally,she thought. The vine Mick had wrapped around her heart was withering. She had spent much of the previous six months hating Mick for what had happened with Brigid—but hate was not the opposite of love. Indifference was the opposite of love, and for the first time, Ayers felt like she could take Mick or leave him. Tonight, she would leave him.
“Good night,” she said.
Later, when Ayers was home in bed with Winnie snoring softly at her feet, she’d texted Baker.Survived dinner with Mick. Sorry about that; my parents wanted to see him.
There was no response, which was unusual. Ayers wondered if maybe she’d blown it. At noon the next day, Baker still hadn’t responded, and she nearly sent a second text asking if he wanted to grab lunch—but she decided this would be confusing. She was the one who had asked for space; he was giving it to her.
When their visit enters its second week, Phil and Sunny decide it’s time to introduce themselves to Irene Steele. Ayers tries to dissuade them; Irene is reserved. She may not appreciate being ambushed without warning. But Sunny waves Ayers’s concerns away like incense smoke. They see Baker and Floyd get back from school, and the instant Irene arrives home with Cash, they gather up Winnie, a bottle of champagne, and a charcuterie platter from Island Cork.
“Come over after you shower, Fred,” Sunny says, which bugs Ayers. She doesn’t want to shower and she doesn’t want to socialize.
She says, “I’m tired, Mama. I’m going to lie down for a little while.”
Sunny immediately changes her tune. Yes, Ayers should sleep, the first trimester is so taxing on the body. Sunny starts talking about being in western Australia on an ostrich farm that was owned by a woman who was also a potter, she made the most beautiful bowls…
“Mama, please,” Ayers says. She lies down on her bed and pulls the comforter over her head. The last thing she hears is Sunny saying to Phil, “Leave her be, honey.”
When Ayers awakens, it’s dark outside and her parents are back, laughing, whispering, bumping into things, shushing each other. Ayers checks her phone—ten thirty. They went across the street at five. “Mom?” she says. “Dad?”
They erupt in giggles. Ayers feels like she’s the parent right now. “Have you been across the street this wholetime?”
“Oh, Freddy,” Sunny says. “It’s going to be so great!”
“What is?”
“Irene took a while to warm up,” Phil says. “But by the fourth bottle of wine…”
“Fourth?”
“Plus the champagne,” Sunny says. “So, technically, five.”
“Irene likes her chardonnay,” Phil says.
“Whatis going to be so great?” Ayers asks.
“Our family!” Sunny says. “The family we’re creating with the Steeles. And that Cash—what a cutie!”
“Your mother has a crush on him,” Phil says. “She made that much obvious.”
