Stuck in Paradise with You

Chapter 19

19

CARRIE

I watch Luke limp away with Noah hot on his heels. ‘Uncle Luke, what happened? Did you get stuck in the propellers?’

‘No, buddy.’

‘Did you get attacked by a shark?’

‘No, buddy.’

I see the trail of water running off Luke’s clothes as he heads for the salon, then I feel rather than see the eyes of Joe and Alisha on me because I don’t dare to look at them. How shameful and childish I’ve been will be written all over their faces.

Abruptly, I wish my body was shielded with more clothes.

That jet can’t pick me up soon enough.

‘Joe, I want you to know I’m not normally like this.’ Unwillingly, I look at him now. ‘I swear to you I’m more professional than this, always. Luke just…’ I sigh. ‘None of this will affect the work I do for you, I promise.’

Joe smiles. Earnestly, I think. ‘Carrie, do you know how many times I’ve wanted to throw Luke overboard?’

I try to reciprocate his lightheartedness, but I just feel… heavy.

‘I’ve been nothing but impressed with you and your work so far. If anyone should be apologizing, it’s me. This trip hasn’t exactly gone the way I planned.’

I open my mouth to speak. To protest. The trip hasn’t gone as planned. I’m ruining his precious time with his family and friends.

But Joe speaks first. ‘Now, I’m told afternoon tea is being served in a few minutes. Will you join us?’

I nod, though more food and socializing are pretty much the last things I want. At this stage, even the second stomach I reserve especially for desserts is too stuffed.

‘Of course,’ I say brightly, because I have to make this right. It’s my last act before making partnership, hopefully, and so far, it’s a disaster.

Joe starts to move in the direction of the aft deck but I have to check…

‘Joe, am I still able to head back to New York tonight?’

‘The jet should be on the deck in Tortola when we get back.’

Thank you. Thank you. Because above everything else I’m feeling – remorse, embarrassment, guilt – Luke’s words are replaying over and over in my mind and giving me a headache. The only thing you seem to think about is work. He struck a chord. Callum tells me as much. Everyone tells me as much. Even Rachel tries to send me home from the office when I’m working all the hours. Though I usually brush it, everyone , off. For some reason, Luke’s words are taking hold of me.

Maybe because the reason I have had to be work obsessed is Luke, us , the mess he left me in, to pick up the pieces alone.

Perhaps even more than that, though, I can hear him as if he’s standing right next to me, grinding out the words, again: I have never, nor will I ever, be the type of man who cheats.

And I think the problem is, that’s exactly how I felt when he went back to his wife.

It felt distinctly as if the man I had fallen offensively in love with had cheated on me. We were done and there was no coming back from it.

I pull on my cover-up dress and go in search of cake and people but before I reach the dining tables on the aft deck, Ella appears in front of me, handing me a glass of champagne.

‘We ladies will take tea on the top deck,’ she says. Oh no , I really have ruined the Hettich’s family time. ‘I never get a moment’s peace from being Mom.’

On grounds that it would make me feel better to believe that’s the reason for the forced gender split on the boat, I agree and follow her upstairs. Alisha is already waiting in the lounge area and a coffee table has been laid out with a three-tiered stand of scones and cakes. There’s a silver tray of finger sandwiches, and three place settings, each with a decorative china cup and saucer to match a teapot in the middle of the table. Standing to the side of the table is an open bottle of champagne – presumably the same drink as I’m holding – sitting in an ice bucket.

‘Wow, this looks incredible. I’m ravenous all of a sudden,’ I say. Despite being full to bursting moments ago, I’m salivating at the sight of the rich, decadent cakes, my attention landing on the midnight-blue mirror glaze of one in particular.

We take our seats and Riley and Daisy fuss around us like they literally cannot do enough to ensure we’re having the best time. If I asked, I wonder if they’d throw Luke into a sea full of jellyfish again, or at least help me hide his body after he gives himself a coronary.

When they leave, I say, ‘I’ve apologized to Joe but I want to say sorry to you both too. You’ve been nothing but nice to me since I arrived and you don’t have to be. This is supposed to be a work trip and Luke and I are just… ruining things for you all.’

The sisters look at each other, then Alisha says, ‘Girl, we are thrilled you’re here.’

‘Luke has finally met his match,’ Ella says. ‘I thought I’d never see the day his cool, calm exterior would be broken. Or again, at least. I’ve only seen him pull down his rock-solid walls once before.’

‘Believe me,’ Alisha says, leaning forward to pick up a smoked salmon finger sandwich. ‘I try my best to wind up that man but nothing gets to him.’

Ella similarly reaches for a savory snack. ‘No one but you,’ she says, smirking at the same time as taking a bite of food.

Alisha gives a short laugh. ‘If my ex-husband and I acted like you and Luke do, we’d have never split up.’

I feel myself frown. ‘All Luke and I do is fight.’ Hardly the foundation for a relationship. ‘I think Ella and Joe have it right. You two seem really, genuinely happy in each other’s company.’

Ella chuckles. ‘We are, but don’t think that behind closed doors we don’t keep each other on our toes. We bicker incessantly. You need that. It keeps the fire alive. Especially when your husband is a man like Joe with a big idea a minute. He needs reigning in.’ She dabs the side of her mouth with a cloth napkin. ‘But you’re right. All of this stuff means nothing if there’s no love. Beneath all the material things, Joe’s a good man. The very best.’

‘Trust me,’ Alisha says. ‘You only argue when there’s something you care enough about to fight for it.’

The conversation changes and I join in but am only semi-present. Alisha’s words have stayed with me. Luke didn’t fight for me. I never fought for him. Yet I did care. I cared so much, I would have taken fighting with him every day of my life over him walking away. But he didn’t give me a choice.

We finish tea and when it’s cleared, Brittany asks us if we’d like a sundowner to drink as we sail back to Charithonia by sunset.

All three of us take a refill of champagne and head down to the trampolines at the front of the boat as the sun begins its slow descent.

Joe, Luke, four kids and two dogs are already there, sitting and lying on the ginormous beds. Against the almost surreal backdrop, they look like the cover for an LP.

While Ella and Alisha move confidently into the group of their people, I hang back a little, approaching tentatively, feeling like an imposter.

I look around for Henry or Jenny, Brittany, Riley, Daisy or Jake. Someone to make me feel less like I’m intruding on the time of this family and their close friend, but there’s no one around. Why now? They’ve been non-stop attentive all day. Henry overly so.

Then Jessie spots me and waddles over to me, wagging her tail. There are multiple reasons I love dogs. Their indiscriminate affection being numero uno .

As I bend to stroke her, my eyes are drawn to Luke. He beckons me over with a flick of his head – a surprisingly kind gesture, since he’s probably cursing me internally for his near-death experience.

I decide to take him up on the offer and, with Jessie’s emotional support, I make my way onto the trampoline, accepting, I suppose on some level, a sort of truce for sunset.

Before I come to sit, I spot something on the surface of the water and a voice calls, ‘Turtle, starboard side.’ I look around for the source of the sound and eventually find Henry and Jake up in the crow’s nest above us.

‘Turtle!’ Noah says, bouncing up and running to the side of the boat, Luke darting after him. Thankfully, all of the kids are wearing life jackets but Luke catches Noah and sweeps him onto his knee, coming to sit on the side of the boat, his legs hanging down the side.

I think I move to get a better look of the elegant creature, gently swaying with the waves, but in doing so, I wind up taking a seat next to Luke and getting Jessie for company again. She flops her head down into my lap.

I’m here in the warm Caribbean, watching the sunset, a mesmerizing turtle floating in front of me, Luke by my side, a child on his lap, a dog on mine. In another time and place, in an alternate universe perhaps, this would have been the stuff dreams are made of.

I chance a glance at Luke and my breath catches when I find him already looking at me.

Six weeks.

We were only together for six weeks.

But these are the things we talked about for our future.

‘It’s hard to believe there’s a storm coming,’ Ella says, the others now all standing behind Luke, Noah, Jessie and me.

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Joe says. ‘Life is funny. When you think you’re cruising along, the universe throws you a curveball.’

It sure does.

‘Thankfully, lightning doesn’t strike the same spot twice.’

I only realize I’ve spoken those words loud enough for someone else to hear when Alisha says, ‘I’m not so sure about that. This won’t be Charithonia’s first hurricane.’