“It’s just a nightclub.”
“She’s an alcoholic, Tamyra,” Winnie said.
Laine jerked her head toward Winnie. “How did you know that? Did she tell you?”
“Didn’t have to. I know what one looks like.”
“Just like you knew what I looked like.” Tamyra was getting it.
“This is what I do,” Winnie said.
“Well, do you put pajamas on grown women?” Laine asked. “Because I don’t.”
Winnie laughed, then knelt and pulled off Riley’s shoes. She sent Laine in search of pajamas and Tamyra in search of a cold rag. When they came back, she put Riley’s pj’s on her and tucked her beneath the covers. Riley opened her eyes for a brief moment.
“I loveth you. I loveth you all,” she announced.
“Get some sleep, Riley,” Winnie said as she scooted the other two out of the room.
Laine fell onto the sofa. “I can’t believe this. She just lost her job tonight.”
“If you both knew that was her issue, why did you let her go in there tonight?” Tamyra asked.
“I asked her if she needed to, and she said she’d be okay. She just kept complaining about that dumb headache.”
“When did she get so much to drink?” Tamyra interjected again. “We weren’t even there that long.”
Winnie walked over to the couch and sat down. “You don’t have to be at a nightclub to get a drink, Tamyra.”
Laine took off her heels and rubbed the bottom of her feet. “Yeah, she could have gotten one early and we just didn’t see her or something.”
Tamyra sat in the chair beside the sofa. “Well, you should have been paying attention is all I’m saying.”
The three women sat there, heads leaned back, feet propped up on Riley’s sea-grass ottoman. “I ran right out on Albert again. Two for two. Boy, that’s a track record for a woman who hasn’t had a date in fifty years.”
Tamyra laughed. “This one wasn’t my fault.”
Laine crossed her feet at the ankles. “Mine, either. I’m just a pitiful adulterer, but I had nothing to do with you running out on Albert again.”
Winnie reached her hand over and patted Laine’s leg. “You’re a good woman, Laine Fulton. A good woman.”
Laine changed the subject. “Did you see Christian’s face? He was heartbroken.”
“I did see Christian’s face,” Winnie replied. “My question is, did you see Mia’s face?”
Laine sat up quickly. “You saw that too?”
“She’s up to no good.”
Tamyra sat up. “How do you two see all this? Please tell me. I don’t see anything and you two don’t miss anything.”
“It’s because we’re Baptist,” they said in unison. Their raucous laughter didn’t stir Riley from her drug-induced sleep.
* * *
Laine walked along the concrete walkway that skirted a sandy beach and wove around the properties of the Atlantis. The wind had really picked up and whipped the edge of her dress around her legs; the ocean seemed to have gone to a steady roar in the background, though she couldn’t see it. She had left Tamyra sound asleep in the chair and Winnie killing it on the sofa. But she couldn’t sleep. The Mia thing was killing her. Laine had pushed Riley in extreme measures this week, but she also knew something had happened on that date with Christian. Granted she had known Riley less than a week, but long enough to know she was irritatingly honest. Laine knew she herself was irritatingly honest as well, but they were very different in their delivery. And the self-control that Riley had shown simply in dealing with Laine made her all but certain she wouldn’t have gotten wasted like that tonight. Not with everything that was at stake for Max and his guests. None of it made sense.
The only thing she knew was that Mia irritated her. There was this feeling that had nagged her from the moment she met her, and Mia’s immediate gravitation toward Christian confirmed it. Laine hadn’t been a sleuth before, but she’d written about one. So she had plans to see what she could find out.
“Where are you going without me?” Winnie’s voice startled her.
Laine turned. The crashing waves warred behind them in the cloud-covered night. “It’s just bugging me. This whole thing tonight.”
“It’s in your craw, huh?”
Laine shook her head. “In my what?”
“Up your butt. In your craw.”
This woman and her words. “Sure, yeah. All of that crazy stuff. So the only way I’m going to get it out of my . . . craw . . . is to go see what I can find out.”
Winnie put her pudgy hands on the edges of her white studded belt, the belt buckle visible even in the shadows of nighttime; then she grabbed the edges of her jacket and pulled it around her. Her white hair whipped in front of her face. She pushed back at it forcefully. “What are you going to do? Break into their offices or something?”
“I have no idea what I’m going to do. But I’ve got to do something.” Laine turned back and started walking toward The Cove. Winnie’s tiny heels followed at a steady click until they caught up to her. “I didn’t wake you up when I left, did I?”
Winnie handed Laine her phone. “No. Your phone did.”
Laine took it. “Who would be calling me at this time of night?” She looked down. Missed call. Mitchell Fulton. Laine felt a rush of heat flood through her. “It’s my husband, Winnie. . . .” Her voice softened. “I mean, my ex-husband.”
Winnie tilted her head.
Laine bit her lip hard.
“Go call him, sweetie. I’ll go back to Riley’s and get out of this wind. You go call your . . . You go call Mitchell, and when you get back, we’ll straighten out Riley’s life.”
“We were supposed to leave tomorrow.”
Winnie shook her head. “We’re not leaving until we get that baby girl in there out of this mess she’s in. And I’m not getting her out by myself.”
Laine gave her a smile and nodded. “No, I won’t leave until we get this figured out. She’s done too much for me to leave her.” She felt her pulse quicken. “Okay. I’m going to call him back real quick and then I’ll come get you.”
“Go on,” Winnie said, giving her a flutter of her hand.
Laine looked at Winnie, her face serious, her words as sincere as any she had spoken in a long time. “Winnie, would you pray?”
Winnie gave her a smile and a wink. “I’ll be praying until you get back. Just don’t take too long now. ’Cause even the disciples couldn’t pray for an hour.”
Laine laughed nervously. “Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Winnie left her alone. The sounds of the roaring ocean and the wind were no contest for the pounding of her heart inside her ears. He had left no voice mail message. She pressed his name and his number lit up on the display screen of her phone. His picture took over every remaining piece of black space behind it.
“Hello?” Mitchell’s voice sounded tired.
Laine walked farther away from the ocean. “Hi, Mitchell. It’s me.”
She could hear him stir. “Hi.” She could picture him sitting up and turning on the light. For some reason he couldn’t talk on the phone in the dark. “I’ve been out of town and I just got all of your messages. Sorry that I’m just getting back to you.”
She found a small bench by the koi pond in front of Riley’s condo. She sat down, crossing her legs underneath her and wishing she had brought a jacket. “No, it’s okay. I just thought maybe you didn’t want to talk to me. You know, after our last conversation.”
He stirred again. “No, baby. No. I would talk to you anytime. Anywhere. I am so sorry. But after our conversation I just had to get away from everything. And I did. I drove up the coast. Left my phone, laptop, and told the office I’d be back at the end of the week, that there would be no reason to try to contact me because I wasn’t even going to check in. Then I got home and saw that I had missed you so many times, so I called you right away.”
Her heart rate began to slow. Burning tears fill
ed her eyes, and the lump in her throat made her wonder if speaking would even be possible. “I’m so sorry.” Her words came out soft and choppy.
“Baby . . . it’s okay.”
Her tears were falling now and she didn’t try to hide it in her voice. “No, it’s not. I hurt you so much. I was so stupid.”
“Laine, you don’t have—”
She stopped him. “Yes, yes, I do. And I need you to let me. I need you to let me say everything I need to say. I was so stupid and foolish. It was like when I was in Dubai and I met him, I let down my guard. One guard, then another guard. First it was a look. Then a conversation. Then a dance. And with each thing I did, I knew. I knew I shouldn’t be doing it. But with each step I took closer to the fire, my resistance weakened. And by the time I had any sense about me, it was too late. And I’m so sorry.” Her tears had become heaves now.
Mitchell was quiet, respecting her yet again.
“And I wouldn’t blame you if you never wanted to see me again. Or talk to me again. Or love me again. I wouldn’t blame you for any of that. And no matter what, I’ll be okay now. I know that. Something has happened to me this week, Mitchell. Something I can’t explain. It’s like I can see things clearly. I can feel my heart coming alive again. But I want it to be alive with you. I want to share this journey with you. You have done nothing but love me. You’ve loved me so well.”
“And I still love you.” His words came like an agent of healing as salt water pours over a wound. They stung as the declaration of what she had violated, but they soothed as a declaration of what could be restored.
“You do?”
“I love you with all my heart, Lainey. I’ve never stopped loving you.”
“But can you forgive me?”
“I forgave you immediately. I was angry. Could have wrung your neck. But I forgave you. I knew you had to forgive yourself. And I knew that was the real barrier, not you loving me.”
“But with everything I said the other day, how can you love me now?”
“Because everything you said the other day was just another way of protecting yourself. Of staying in your shame. And I don’t want you to stay there, baby. I want you out of your shame.”
She sniffed. “I feel like I am. Honestly, the other night I came back to my room and I had been a real a—, um, butt, and a woman here had said some really hurtful and incredibly truthful things about me, and for the first time since all of this happened, I was able to see myself, really see myself. And all of that stuff that you’ve told me about healing and forgiveness, it just all seemed real in that moment. And it was almost like heaven itself reached down and took an eraser and erased all of the shame from my soul.”
“I love you so much. I’m so sorry you’ve hurt, baby.”
She looked up and laughed through her tears. This man amazed her. This man whom she had all but destroyed, completely disregarded, was sorry she had hurt. “Forgive me for hurting you.”
“You are completely forgiven. Now get home so I can marry you all over again and we can start this life we were supposed to be living.”
She sniffed hard and wiped at her face with the back of her hand. She would have given anything for a Kleenex, not even caring that her hair had blown completely free of its ponytail holder. “I can’t come home yet.”
“You do know there’s a hurricane headed right at you. They’re saying it’s a Category 3. That’s bad, Laine. You need to get home. Where are you right now? It’s so loud.”
“I’m outside.”
“Is that wind?”
“Yeah, it’s gotten pretty bad today. I don’t think they expected it to pick up this quickly.”
“Like I said, get out of there now.”
“I will. I promise. But I can’t yet. And by the time I can, I doubt there will be any more flights even heading out. I have a friend I have to help before I can leave, babe. It’s a really long story, but honestly, I’ve given her an incredibly hard time and I owe her this.”
“You have a friend? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call anyone a friend. Is this really the woman I love?”
She laughed a half snort, half cry.
“Yep, it’s her,” he said. “Well, I’m coming to get you, then. You’re not going to endure a hurricane without me.”
“No, baby. You can’t come here. It’s too dangerous. I promise, I’ll be home by Sunday. It’s supposed to start heading in by tomorrow evening, and then, Lord willing, I can get out of here by late Sunday. If the airports are moving people in and out and the damage isn’t too bad.”
“Well, you hunker down and don’t be foolish. And when you get home—” he paused—“I’m going to marry you.”
She held on to that phone as if it were a lifeline. “Promise?”
“I promise. I’m so proud of you.”
“I’m so grateful for you. I love you, Mitchell Fulton.”
“You’ve always loved me,” he declared.
And she knew it was true. Another reminder of how completely he knew her.
* * *
Laine poked her head back inside Riley’s condo. Winnie was stretched out on the sofa, back to inhaling most of the Bahamian air. Apparently she couldn’t tarry one hour either. It was then that Laine realized how tired she really was. The gamut of emotions she had just run through had drained her completely. She walked into the other bedroom and stretched out across the hot pink comforter, and in a matter of minutes she was sound asleep.
20
Friday morning . . .
Laine could smell coffee and bacon. She opened her eyes and had no idea where she was. Her eyes focused on a glass container, where a small turtle slowly made his way over a rock. She watched him for a moment. The intent movement with such little progress made her feel sorry for the little guy. She looked down at the pink comforter beneath her and remembered. An overwhelming pity for Riley rose inside of her. The woman had aired her dirty laundry across a dance floor for anyone and everyone to hear, and yet she still felt sorry for what had happened last night.
She lifted herself from the bed, her black dress creased like an accordion now, and walked into Riley’s living room. Tamyra pulled orange juice out of the refrigerator while Winnie stood over the stove, flipping bacon. “Tamyra, if you eat one piece of that, I swear I’m going to my balcony and jumping.”
Tamyra opened the carton and poured juice into one of four glasses that sat on the counter. “Don’t worry. Your life is safe today.”
Laine pulled out a barstool and sat. Tamyra handed her the glass she had just poured, and Laine took a drink. “Is Sleeping Beauty still sleeping?”
“Haven’t heard a peep,” Winnie said as she laid a plate covered with bacon in front of Laine. She studied the grease-stained paper towel and wondered how that could be good for her.
“Why do I love that stuff?”
“Because it is so good,” Winnie offered.
The wind whistled through the invisible cracks of the sliding-glass door. Laine turned and looked out. Rain was blowing past the window in sheets.
Laine scooted her stool back. “Gracious, it’s getting fierce out there. Guess we missed our ticket out of here.”
“You think?” Tamyra retorted.
“Yes, smarty-pants. I think. Now, while this hurricane is blowing paradise away, I’m going to check on Miss ‘Tell All My Business’ in there and make sure she’s breathing.”
“Breakfast will be ready in just a few minutes,” Winnie said. “Just pull her out of there and bring her on in here.”
* * *
Riley could hear sounds coming from what seemed like a world away. A fog sat over her head and felt so heavy she didn’t even know if she could open her eyes. She rolled away from the windows and the sound of the wind that seemed to blow against them and felt the weight in her head blow to the left side of her brain. She reached her hands up in agony. There hadn’t been a morning in over two years that she had woken up feeling this way.
“Get up and
face the world.” The voice boomed from behind her and felt like a pounding bass drum against her skull.
She stirred to try to get away from the pain.
The bed dipped beneath the weight of her guest. A hand rested on her shoulder and turned her over. “Get up, Riley. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Riley knew it was Laine. She tried hard to open her eyes. “What happened last night?”
“Well, from the looks of things, I’d say you got sloshed. Wasted. Trashed. Would you like me to go on?”
Her words tried to register with Riley’s brain. She forced her eyes open and tried to lift her body up. “There’s no way.”
“How else would you explain how you feel?”
She finally raised her body up and leaned against the padded headboard. She blinked hard to get her eyes to focus on Laine. “I don’t know. I don’t even remember last night.”
“Lucky you. I’m not surprised. And honestly, it’s for the best, and I’m hoping to forget most of it myself. Now come on and get up and let us get some food in you.”
Riley realized then how hungry she actually was. “That would be good. I’m starving.”
“You’re hungry?”
“Yes, I’m famished.” Riley scooted to the side of the bed and pushed her body out. “I don’t remember throwing up, either. And I used to throw up a lot when I got drunk.” Riley stood, and immediately her head began to swim. Everything she felt was reminiscent of a thousand hangovers. But she usually remembered drinking—at least once she was able to open her eyes. And she had no recollection of last night at all. She rubbed at the sides of her head. “My head feels like a freight train has just crashed through it. But if I had been drinking, I would remember,” she said, walking into the kitchen. She stopped when she saw Tamyra and Winnie there.
“What’s going on? Why are all of you here?”
Winnie turned the water off at the sink. “You mean, you don’t remember a thing about last night?”
Riley looked at them, dumbfounded. “I don’t remember a thing. And trust me, I’ve been drunk many times.” She lowered herself into a chair at the breakfast table. “And I may not remember everything about an evening, but I do remember some things. Usually the worst things . . .” Her voice trailed off.
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