Beachcombing in the Bahamas (Once Again #11)

Chapter 26

26

Y vette wanted to hug her youngest daughter for standing up to Adeline.

But Francine asked, “So does this mean we’re not going out on the catamaran tomorrow?”

For a moment, there was stunned silence.

Even though Yvette was the furthest thing from laughing right now, she wanted to laugh. Young people. Sometimes the gravity of a situation didn’t hit home. But then it wasn’t Francine’s boyfriend who’d assaulted his massage therapist and gotten himself thrown in jail.

Brock, however, laughed. “You can go out on the catamaran. Garth can take care of it.”

Garth stood taller. “I’m staying with you and Uncle Trevor to deal with the lawyers.” Of course. He wasn’t a boy; he was a man. And he wanted to be down in the trenches with the other men.

Ethan said, “I’ll take care of everyone.” Followed quickly on the heels by Malcolm adding, “We can both do it.”

Through her tears, Kacey ground out, “I can’t believe you guys.” Then she raced up the stairs. On any other day, Yvette would have run after her, but as she heard a door slam upstairs, she knew it would be a long time before her daughter ever let her in again.

Jodi swiftly followed Kacey. “I’ll go make sure she’s okay.”

Francine raised her hands in the air, asking, “What did I say?” as if she didn’t get it.

Adeline turned to Yvette, her smile saying, My work here is done . Heading for the sliding glass door, she stepped out, closing it gently behind her.

At the front door, Lorna said, “Olive is holding dinner for us. I think we need something to eat. Come on, everyone.”

Trevor went to her, sliding an arm around her shoulders as they turned back to the big house.

Garth, the boys, and their girlfriends followed. Suddenly, it was just Brock and Yvette.

His laughter faded, and the lines of his face were strained. “We need to talk.”

She held her palm out toward him, warning him off in case he tried to touch her. “There’s nothing to talk about. We can’t keep on doing what we were doing.”

He closed his eyes. As if the words hurt him as much as they did her. Then his haunted gaze cut through her. “You know it’s not over.”

She didn’t know how she would have fought him, because all she wanted to do was throw herself in his arms and cry out her anger, frustration, and fear.

But Jodi appeared at the top of the stairs. “Can I talk to you?”

She didn’t call her Mom. But her gaze made it clear who she was talking to. Brock mouthed, Later , before he followed the rest of the family.

Jodi slowly descended the stairs, but instead of sitting on the couch, she opened the back door, stepping out and kicking off her flip-flops before she walked onto the sand.

As the sun dipped, the day was cooling off, though the air remained balmy. Instead of begging her daughter’s forgiveness, she asked, “How’s Kacey?”

They strolled down the beach a long minute before Jodi finally answered. “She’s angry. Upset. She feels betrayed.”

Yvette closed her eyes against the pain. She deserved that. “I mean,” Jodi said, “we all knew Darryl was an ass. But now she gets slapped in the face with it. And that hurts.”

Of course. Darryl had betrayed Kacey as well. Consumed with her own guilt and her roiling emotions, Yvette had concentrated only on what she’d done, not how Kacey felt about Darryl’s infidelity.

Did that make her selfish? Of course it did. And it made her a terrible mother. But it also made her human.

“At least she’s seen the light,” Jodi went on. “I didn’t want it to happen this way, but now she can be done with that douche bag and find someone who’s worthy of her.”

Yvette couldn’t help adding, even with a little smile, “You’re right. He’s a total douche.”

Jodi laughed.

Her daughter would never know how good that laugh felt. That Jodi could still laugh with her mother meant the world. It meant there was a chance.

“The only reason she’s so angry with you and Uncle Brock is because of Darryl.” She turned, spread her hands as she walked backwards, looking at Yvette. “I mean, when they took him away, she was like a crazy person. We had to hold her back. Then she was calling you guys frantically, and no one answered. It just made it worse for her.”

The only thing Yvette wanted to ask in this moment was if Jodi would get over finding her mother and her uncle together. She was afraid Kacey never would. But Jodi? Yvette could only pray.

“Kacey said we didn’t know what he’d done.” Jodi stopped on the sand, facing the sea, gazing at the sunset as the colors stretched across the sky. Then she turned to Yvette. “I mean, he was calling out, ‘I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it.’” She snorted. “And there were all these whispers, and his masseuse looked so upset. She was out there, and both Ethan and Malcolm had seen her call his name when we were all waiting for our sessions. So it wasn’t like we weren’t guessing what happened. At least I wasn’t. But Kacey just kept saying she couldn’t understand why. But she knew. We all knew. She was just in denial.”

“And when your Uncle Brock came back,” Yvette added, “and told her why Darryl was arrested, Kacey couldn’t deny it anymore.”

Jodi nodded.

Yvette had to say it. She couldn’t not say it, even as much as she didn’t want to. “And to top it off, she found me with your uncle.”

Jodi gave her a sideways glance Yvette couldn’t read. “Yeah. She walked in on you.” She sighed. “It was so much easier to spit all her anger at you instead of where it belonged.”

Yvette’s need to know tore her apart. “And how do you feel?”

“About you and Uncle Brock?” The question was an obvious stalling tactic.

“Yes,” Yvette confirmed. “About us.” Even though it felt as if there was no “us” anymore. No Brock and Yvette. There never could be again.

But Jodi snorted a laugh. It wasn’t sad. It wasn’t angry. It wasn’t happy either. It was just a burst of sound. “Jesus, Mom. I’ve known about you guys for months.”

It felt like a punch straight to her belly, but Yvette didn’t collapse, didn’t even bend over so she could breathe. Even though Jodi’s words sucked all the air out of her. “What do you mean?”

An odd light filled Jodi’s eyes. It might have been laughter. And a definite smirk creased her lips. “I see the way he looks at you. And the way you look at him. I mean, sometimes it’s like there’s no one else in the room but the two of you. You only have eyes for each other.”

Sensation sizzled along her skin. Fear. But something else too. Hope. “Does it bother you?”

Jodi tipped her head back, staring at the sky, and tucked her hair behind her ears. Finally, she looked at Yvette. “At first I thought it was…” She shrugged. “Weird, I guess. Then I thought about how miserable you always were with Dad.”

Yvette gasped. “I wasn’t miserable.”

Jodi rolled her eyes. “Are you really saying that you two always got along?”

Yvette swallowed hard. She’d tried to keep all that from her daughters. Obviously, she hadn’t. “I guess not,” she confessed.

“And after he was gone, it was like your life was so lonely. It was just go to work, come home, cook dinner for us.”

“I love cooking for you. I love taking care of you and your sister. I even love doing your laundry.”

Jodi snorted. “Yeah right. That’s why you always asked us why we couldn’t clean up our rooms and do our own laundry.”

This time, Yvette couldn’t help the bubble of laughter. “All right. That’s true.”

“Anyway, now, with us gone, you’re all alone.”

“I just want to be here for you when you are home. Vacations, holidays. Especially during the summer. Unless you go to summer school.”

Jodi lifted her shoulders like a physical question. “What about when we graduate? When we’ve got jobs and our own apartments?”

Yvette sighed, bit her lip, still not answering the key question. “I suppose I could get a flat in the city. Something close enough to walk to work.”

But Jodi said what Yvette couldn’t. “Would you marry Uncle Brock?”

He’d asked her so many times, it shouldn’t have taken her breath away. But this was her daughter. Finally, when she could breathe again, she said, “Would you be okay with that?”

Shaking her head, Jodi said, “You must think I’m some sort of ungrateful cow.”

The words shocked Yvette. “Of course I don’t. You should never say that about yourself.”

Jodi grinned, her hand to her chest. “I never said I felt that way.”

“Well, I certainly don’t think you’re an ungrateful cow. And neither is your sister.”

Jodi tipped her head to one side. “So, would you marry him?”

She suddenly felt like the daughter, and Jodi had become the mother. “I don’t know.”

“Why not? Because you think Kacey will hate you forever?”

Yvette couldn’t help saying, “When did you become so grown up?”

“I’ve been a grown-up for a long time,” Jodi said with a certain amount of sadness. “Who do you think takes care of Kacey at school?”

Yvette huffed out a breath. “And now you’re taking care of me.”

She looked at her beautiful daughter with fresh eyes. Jodi was so perceptive. It wasn’t as if Yvette hadn’t known that. She’d always felt her daughter was special. Both her daughters were. But Jodi had always seemed to be there when Yvette felt her lowest, asking if they could bake cookies or play a card game or watch a favorite show together.

It came to her then, in a way it never had before, that those times had never been about what Jodi needed. It had been about what Jodi thought Yvette needed.

The words fell out of her mouth. “Do you know how much I love you?”

Jodi shrugged. “Yeah, yeah, I know you love me.”

“No. I mean it. I—” She touched her chest. “—love—” She pointed at Jodi. “—you.”

Then she drew her daughter into her arms, hugged her tightly, and said against her ear, “I don’t know what will happen between your uncle and me. I only know I can’t make your sister unhappy because of me.”

Jodi drew back. “She’s unhappy because of Darryl. Because he’s such a creep.”

“Douche bag,” Yvette said softly.

Jodi smiled. “She’s just taking it out on you right now. She’ll get over it.”

“Did she guess about us too?” She didn’t need to add more for Jodi to understand.

“She had her head buried in The Book of Darryl . Of course she didn’t notice.” She looked at the sand as if she couldn’t say the words while her eyes were on her mother. “She’s just lashing out at you so she doesn’t have to face what a douche Darryl is. And she has to admit that before she can do something about it.”

“She can’t be thinking of staying with him after this?” It was almost a question. If Kacey hadn’t found her with Brock, if she hadn’t gone ballistic, that was what Yvette would say to her daughter now.

“You can darn well believe I won’t let her stay with him. Right now, she’s in denial. She’s still trying to tell herself he’s not guilty.”

“Do you think I can talk to her?” Oh yes, they had reversed roles.

Jodi shook her head so hard her hair flew. “Not right now. But it might be soon.”

It had to be soon if she didn’t want to lose Kasey altogether. The longer this went on, the worse it would get.

Then she threw her arms around her daughter again, squeezed her with all the love bubbling up inside her. “I love you.”

Jodi whispered, “I love you too.” Then, after a breath, she added, “And Kasey will again.”

Yvette loved her daughter for those words.

But she wasn’t sure they were true.

Brock stood outside Yvette’s door. It was late. No lights burned in any of the houses in their compound, no fires on the beach, no rowdy drinking songs, no beer toasts, no midnight swims. Olive had even removed the Christmas tree. The holiday was over.

He knocked.

Yvette never answered. He’d hoped she would. But he’d also known she wouldn’t.

Walking around the back to her small porch, he found her curtains closed. He knocked anyway, afraid it would be the same as it had been at the front door. Nothing.

Then Yvette opened a slit in the curtains.

And stole his breath.

She wore shorty pajamas that would have been called baby dolls in his day. Short shorts that showed off the long, tanned legs he loved to feel wrapped around him, and a sleeveless top that bared the shoulders he loved to kiss.

Through the screen-in porch between them, he said, “We need to talk.” There was no sound to the words; he didn’t have the breath to make her hear.

She shook her head, her luscious hair falling over her shoulders. He loved to sink his fingers into those thick, silky locks.

He was afraid he’d never get to do it again.

Unable to hear her, he could only read her lips. “It’s over,” she said. “There has to be an end to this, and it’s now.”

He wanted to shout. He wanted to bang on the glass. He wanted to howl at the moon. “We’ll never be over.” She might not hear his words, but she would read them on his lips.

But the only thing on her kissable mouth was, “Go away.”

Then she yanked the curtains closed across his face.

Deep in his gut and wrapped around his heart was the knowledge that they would never be over. He didn’t care what her daughters thought. He didn’t care what his mother said. He didn’t care what the Board of Directors wanted. Yvette was his.

And he was hers.

He took out his phone and sent a three-word text message.

I love you.

She didn’t answer.

The lawyers sat with Brock, Trevor, and Garth around the table in the big dining room of the main house. Kacey had wanted to attend, but Brock had firmly told her no. But there was no amount of firmness that would keep Adeline out. She saw herself as the matriarch, the ruler. And she sat at the head of the table.

“This is a very serious charge,” the softly accented Bahamian lawyer said. Romario Deveaux’s dark skin was a striking contrast to his crisply white shirt. He was younger than Trevor, somewhere in his late thirties. “And this is not America,” he added, “where a rich white man is automatically believed over the word of a young woman.”

“Now wait just a minute,” Grady Thompson began. The Donnelly lawyer was in his fifties, with steel-gray hair and a loud voice that carried well in a courtroom.

But they weren’t in a courtroom yet. Brock held up his hand. “We’re not questioning the young woman’s sincerity.” In fact, Brock believed her. But he still couldn’t leave the kid down here to rot in a Bahamian jail for God knew how long.

“Can we just put him on a plane to go home?” Trevor asked. It wasn’t Brock’s preferred method, but the question had to be asked.

“You could do that,” Deveaux said softly. “But there would be an immediate warrant for his arrest.” He shrugged. “Of course, he would be fine as long as he stayed in the United States. But he could never leave the country because as soon as he showed his passport, he would be arrested by our authorities.” His tone and his words were clipped.

“We have no intention of spiriting him away,” Brock said.

Grady continued, “All we want is to ensure a sentence commensurate with what he did.”

Gravely, Deveaux said, “I assure you what he did was quite serious. There was touching—” He cut himself off, glancing at Adeline.

Adeline gave him the full force of her stare. “Let him fry. He isn’t good enough for my granddaughter.”

Brock wanted to drop his head in his hands. His mother had always been bloodthirsty. But he said, “Darryl claims he wouldn’t have gone any further when he realized she wasn’t willing. She started screaming before he could say that.”

Adeline harrumphed, raising her gaze to the ceiling and folding her arms over her chest.

Darryl was an ass, Brock had to admit. But he didn’t believe the kid was a rapist. He believed him as much as he believed the young woman. Darryl was stupid, and he was arrogant. And no way in hell did he have a right to proposition a woman when she was only doing her job. But would he have forced her?

Elbows on the table, hands in the air, fingers splayed, Trevor said, “So.” He paused, staring down Romario Deveaux. “Are you on our side? Or the prosecution’s side?”

Deveaux smiled. “I am only playing devil’s advocate here. That is what the government will say.” He waved a hand to encompass them all. “We need to find a way to mitigate the charges. And bring the young man home again.”

Adeline narrowed her eyes. “He better not get off scot-free,” she said, her tone as pointed as her index finger.

“He won’t get off scot-free, Adeline,” Brock said. “We just don’t want him staying down here in a foreign jail.”

“And I want him out of my granddaughter’s life.” Her nostrils flared with her vehemence.

Brock wanted the same thing, but Kacey was a woman, not a child. Whatever she did would be her decision. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t steer her in the right direction if she started taking the wrong one. But he couldn’t force her.

“Whatever happens between them is up to them, Adeline.”

The only concern now was strategizing how they would keep Darryl out of a thirty-year prison sentence in a Bahamian jail.

Yvette should have sat in on the meeting since it was her daughter’s boyfriend who’d committed the crime.

But Adeline was there. And Yvette couldn’t have withstood the cutting remarks. Besides, Brock would do everything he could on Kacey’s behalf, even if that meant doing something decent for Darryl.

No matter what, she wanted that young man out of her daughter’s life.

She didn’t know if Kacey had ever come out of her room—she certainly hadn’t been at breakfast or lunch—but Yvette knew the longer this went on, the deeper the rift between them would grow.

Brock’s sons had gone out on the catamaran, their girlfriends with them. When Yvette entered the girls’ house, she found Jodi seated on the couch. “Why didn’t you go with them?” she asked her daughter.

It didn’t surprise her when Jodi said, “I wanted to be here in case Kacey comes out of her room.”

“Has she?”

Jodi shook her head.

Yvette sucked up her courage. “I’m going up to talk to her.” Then she asked, “Is her door locked?”

Again, Jodi shook her head. “Enter at your own risk,” she warned.

The words brought a smile to her lips. Jodi, as a teenager, had put that sticker on her bedroom door.

Reminding her, Yvette said, “But you always let me in to get your dirty laundry.”

Her daughter laughed, and it was so good to hear that beautiful sound. Maybe Kacey would never forgive her, but Jodi didn’t seem to care one bit.

Still, Yvette had turned Brock away last night. Even as badly as she’d wanted to throw herself into his arms, wanted his comfort and his strength. As badly as she’d wanted to reply to his text and tell him she would never stop loving him. She didn’t know how she would go on without him.

But today, there was her daughter. And Kacey needed her.

She started up the stairs. “If you hear things smashing, don’t interrupt.”