Beachcombing in the Bahamas (Once Again #11)

Chapter 17 – Adeline

17

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ADELINE

“ I insist you go to the waterfalls, Trevor,” I say to my youngest son.

We stand on the front porch, the Jeep engines roaring, and I take Lorna’s hand. “Your wife and I will have such a pleasant day without you,” I tell him, as if chocolate would melt in my mouth. Once they are gone, perhaps I’ll send Lorna to the store while I sit on the back porch with a nice fruit punch. Brock brought home some of the most delicious guava and passionfruit juices from the zip-lining jaunt the other day.

But Trevor says, “I’d rather stay with you, Lorna. The waterfalls don’t interest me.”

Damn the boy. “Lorna doesn’t want you to miss out on all the fun.” I turn to his wife. “Correct, my dear?”

The girl merely smiles. Not even attempting to make up Trevor’s mind for him. So many lessons to teach her, the first of which is that you always make up your husband’s mind for him.

I feel it imperative that Trevor go with his brother. I lay awake all night thinking about this. As impossible as it seems, I fear that something is happening between Brock and Yvette. How long can it have been going on? It occurs to me I rarely see them together. In fact, until this holiday trip, I haven’t seen Yvette since Thanksgiving. She avoids me, for the most part. Even now, it’s nothing I can put my finger on. Just a look here, a glance there. They never touch, they don’t even truly speak to each other. Except for all that whispering over the Christmas buffet yesterday. Perhaps that is what’s bothering me. I sensed a sizzle in the air between them. Like father, like son. My teeth grit. Trevor needs to be a mitigating force between the two of them. Just like he is on the way to work every morning, since they all drive together.

Trevor’s presence will keep whatever is growing between them at bay.

At least I hope it will.

If only he will do exactly what I tell him to do right now.

Instead, he takes his wife’s hand. “Have no fear. I plan on having plenty of fun with you and Lorna. And today, we should go out for a lovely lunch. There’s a resort on the other side of the island. And the food looks amazing.” Then he adds, and I see him squeeze his wife’s hand and look into her eyes like a sickeningly sweet puppy in love. “Would you like that, sweetheart?”

And Lorna, in another sickeningly sweet gesture, wraps her arm around his waist, leans her head on his shoulder, and places his hand on her belly. “Oh, we’d all love that.”

Speak for yourself, I want to say. But then I know she is speaking for her and the baby.

It turns out my youngest son is immovable when it comes to his wife.

And I let the rest of them go without him, Yvette in the front seat next to Brock. Why isn’t she sitting with one of her daughters?

The only thing I can do for the moment is tell myself that Brock can’t be so foolish as to fall for her wiles the same way his brother did. He won’t dare.