Brightest

by Rochelle Allison

  “Look, Caroline takes things seriously. She’s a passionate person, and she’s doesn’t do casual. Not usually. Look how long she stayed with Jeremiah.”

  “I hear you, but Miles is not Jeremiah.”

  I nodded, folding my napkin into a tiny square. “I guess he’s been pretty sweet with Caroline.”

  Jude smiled. “For what it’s worth, I can't remember the last time he was this into someone. Maybe they’re good for each other.”

  “Were you serious about me moving in?” I asked.

  “You know I was.” He lifted his chin, looking at me. “Were you?”

  “Jude, when was the last time I slept in my own bed?”

  “When Caroline came down.”

  I nodded. “I spoke to Nora this morning about maybe letting Caroline take over my lease. Unofficially. There are only a few months left on it, and I’m thinking by that point she’ll have figured her stuff out.”

  “She’s really staying down here?”

  “She’s…strongly considering it.” I shrugged. “For a little while, anyway. I think it’s helping her process everything.”

  “Well then, come on up.” Jude leaned closer, brushing his lips across my cheek. “Midnight would love it.”

  Midnight was his new puppy. An adorable jet-black Rottweiler, he was tiny enough to fit in my lap. I loved him almost as much as I loved Jude.

  “And what about you?” I stole a peanut. “You’re sure you’d love it?”

  “Alina.”

  “Just making sure, before I lug all my stuff up the hill.”

  “Haven’t I been asking you to come forever?” He pushed away from the bar, resting his hands on his belly as he watched me. “Stop playing cute.”

  Just then, Ariel walked in off the boardwalk, looking effortlessly chic in a tank top and long, flowy skirt. She’d been coming around a lot lately, chatting business with Ivy.

  “Hey guys,” she said, waving. “Ivy here?”

  “In the office,” I said. We were cordial to each other these days. Maybe our history really was…well, history. “She should be out soon.”

  “’Kay.” Flashing a smile, she grabbed a table for two in the corner and whipped out her laptop.

  Bodhi rang the bell upstairs; my order was up. “That’s me.” Swiping my pen from the bar, I tapped Jude on the leg. “We’ll finish discussing this later.”

  Jude got up too, shooting me a pleased grin as he resumed bartending. “Nothing left to discuss.”

  When I came down a couple of hours later, though, Ariel was still around. She’d migrated to the bar, where she sipped a cocktail while chatting with Ivy and Jude. I paused on the stairs, watching her jab away at her tablet and jot things down in her notebook. She was always around these days…even Caroline noticed.

  Swallowing my grimace, I continued to the bar and slid onto a stool. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” Ivy said. “You look like you could use a drink.”

  “Just a Heineken would be great, thanks.”

  She nodded, opening one and sliding the green bottle my way as Jude wandered over. “You okay?” he asked quietly, leaning on the bar.

  “Tired,” I said, only partly lying. “You almost ready to get out of here?”

  “Yeah. I can have Ivy close up.” He hesitated, searching my eyes. “You sure that’s it?”

  I bit my lip, feeling slightly guilty I was asking him to leave Larsen’s. If school and environmental research were my passions, the bar was his. Still, I wasn’t in the mood to chill with Ariel and pretend like I enjoyed it.

  I glanced over Jude’s shoulder, not surprised to find Ariel watching. She played it off, leaning over the bar to grab a napkin.

  “I guess I find the company lacking,” I admitted, shrugging.

  Jude nodded slowly. “Ah.”

  “She’s always here. Always.”

  “You know it’s all business, right?”

  “Maybe for you.”

  He sighed, tapping his fingers on the bar. “I don’t know what you want me to say, babe. She’s gonna be around as long as we’re doing these events.”

  “I know.”

  “You can trust me,” he said, squeezing my thigh.

  I covered his hand with mine. “I know.”

  After work, Jude followed me back to the duplex. Caroline stood in the kitchen, arms crossed as I swept my stuff into the boxes I’d used to move down, months and months ago.

  “This is crazy,” she said, handing me a phone charger from the kitchen. “I feel like I’m chasing you from your house.”

  “Stop it,” I said, making a face. “My house is your house. Anyway, I was bound to end up at Jude’s. You just sped things up.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” said Jude, passing by with a wink and a small stack of boxes.

  She smiled a little, watching him edge through the open door. The screen slammed shut behind him. We went to the bedroom, where I quickly swept the rest of my clothes into a giant garbage bag. “Why am I always helping you pack?” Caroline emptied my underwear drawer into a tote bag. “It’s like, our thing now.”

  I chuckled. “I know. It’s kind of ridiculous.” My laptop went into its case, a tangle of wires and chargers jammed in with it.

  “I don’t know, Alina—he might be the one.”

  “Who, Jude?” I bit back a smile. “Maybe.” Probably.

  “Yeah, girl. He’s one of the good ones.”

  “I think so, too.” I glanced up at her. “And I never thought I’d say this, but so is Miles.”

  “Miles is sweet.” She took a sip of the glass of wine she’d been nursing. “And easy on the eyes. And he’s got stamina, let me tell you.”

  I snorted, finishing off my wine. “I don’t know if that’s TMI or just really juicy info.”

  “We’re adults; there’s no such thing as TMI,” she said tartly, tossing a lace panty at me. “I really hope those are clean.”

  “I hope so, too,” I said, stuffing it into my underwear tote.

  Jude popped his head in. “Is that it?”

  “Just these bags.”

  He swooped them off the bed, leaving Caroline and me in what was now her bedroom. I looked around, ultra-aware that, once again, I was making a major transition in my life. There was a very real chance this was the start of forever with Jude Larsen. I remembered Mom telling me years before, after a broken heart, that when I found the right guy things would just fall in to place, like puzzle pieces. It was so corny, but now, it felt true.

  “You gonna be okay?” I asked my best friend. “I feel like I’m abandoning you.”

  “You’re giving me your home, Alina. Come on,” she said, crossing her arms. “St. Croix is tiny. You’re going to be right around the corner.”

  Chapter Six

  Jude was on the phone when I got home one Thursday afternoon, his face taut with tension. Moving quietly around the kitchen, I unloaded the groceries and began defrosting fish for dinner. Midnight nipped playfully at my feet, yipping for attention.

  “You wanna go out?” I asked, glancing at Jude. He normally took Midnight out the second he got home but judging by the puddle of pee near the patio doors, that hadn’t happened. Grabbing the puppy’s harness, I finagled him into it and took him for a walk down the hill. He was at the age where he got distracted by everything: leaves, birds, mongoose, fireflies.

  “C’mon, buddy,” I urged, patting his butt. “You gonna go or not?”

  He peed into a bush and then half-pulled me back toward the house, barking exultantly at nothing. Inside, I cleaned the puddle and escaped to the bathroom, anxious to take a shower. Besides Midnight’s antics, my class had spent most of the morning down at Salt River, tangled in the mangroves, leaving me sweaty and sunburnt and freckled with insect bites.

  I found Jude on the back patio with a beer when I came out. He smiled faintly, lifting his face for a kiss.

  “How’d it go today?” he asked, pushing a chair out for me with his foot.

  I threw
my wet hair into a ponytail. The humidity had me dewy with sweat despite the fact I’d just showered. “Good. I think we got the rest of the data we needed. Bishop’s typing it up on Excel tonight.”

  Jude nodded, lacing his fingers behind his neck. “Progress.”

  “Plenty,” I agreed. Bishop, Cordelia, and I were hard at work on our group thesis project, a presentation we’d be giving right before Thanksgiving break—a significant part of our grade. It wasn’t my specialty, which was more of a focus on sea turtles, but understanding the environmental concerns of mangrove species was important, if not fascinating. And anyway, I’d have a chance to zero in on sea turtle populations during the spring semester.

  But Jude’s brow was furrowed, the little line between his eyebrows more pronounced than usual. “What’s up? Who were you on the phone with?”

  “My dad.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “His skin cancer’s spread.”

  My breath caught. “He found out at the appointment this morning?”

  He nodded, dragging his finger down the bottle.

  We were quiet a moment. His father, Salomen, had always responded well to treatments in the past, but he’d relapsed. The spot the doctors had biopsied had turned out to be cancerous.

  “We’ll get through this, Jude.”

  When he looked at me, his eyes were wet. My chest caved in on itself. I went to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. Pulling me onto his lap, he rested his face on my chest. “It’s just…it’s fucked up, you know? He’s always been so strong.”

  “He’s still strong,” I said. “And so are you.”

  “I don’t feel so.”

  Nodding, I thumbed the tears from his eyes. “But you are,” I whispered. I didn’t know what else to say. I just held him, stroking my fingers through his soft hair, letting his tears soak my t-shirt. “And I’m here.”

  His arms tightened. “I’m counting on it.”

  The next day I had a precious day off, and the house to myself. Jude had gone in early to do some inventory before his shift, but I suspected he’d be home early. Neither of us said it, but now we’d gotten so used to working together that solo shifts kind of sucked. I didn’t care if that was codependent…I was happy, dammit.

  I’d spent the morning with Caroline in Frederiksted, chatting over a late breakfast. She’d gotten a job at a new boutique hotel down the street, which she wasn’t crazy about.

  “But I need the money,” she’d said, polishing off her eggs. “And they’re cool with my flaky life, as long as I last through the holidays.”

  “That works,” I agreed. “And I hear you. Waiting tables isn’t exactly my dream job.”

  “At least you get tips.”

  “The tips suck,” I said, waving my fork. “I work there because Jude hooked it up.”

  She grinned. “You work there because Jude’s there.”

  “That, too.”

  Jolting me back to the present, my phone chirped with a notification. Yawning, I glanced down at Midnight, the picture of contentment at my feet. He’d been working on a new chew toy all day, and now it was drenched with drool. Shuddering, I left the living room, wiping my brow with the bottom of my shirt. Every fan we had was on, the screened windows slung wide open, but the house was hot and still. It got like this whenever there was a storm brewing, like all the air was being sucked out to sea. October felt a little late to be worrying about hurricanes—traditionally, the season ended around September—but it had been an active season and here we were again, waiting for another tropical storm to pass.

  Pausing by the patio doors, I glanced out at the garden. The trees outside stood eerily still.

  I stepped in something wet. “Oh, yuck. Midnight!” He’d peed on the floor again. Midnight stuck to me like glue, oblivious to the fact I was icked out by his mess, panting and nipping at my fingers as I wiped up the puddle. “You're lucky I didn’t mop yet,” I muttered, scooping him up to bring outside.

  Once he was roaming wild and free in Jude’s back yard, which we’d recently put a fence around, I came back inside to mop. There wasn’t much for me to do; Jude’s family had a lady that came twice a month to clean. She’d been employed by the Larsens for decades, and she scoured the house like it was a museum, which, in some ways, it was. Still, we cooked a lot, and Jude could be a pig—as could Midnight—so I cleaned a little, too.

  My phone rang while I was in the shower. Cursing lightly, I shut the water off and checked it. Missed call: Jude, of course. Finishing up, I dried off and called him back.

  He picked up after a couple of rings, but it was near impossible to hear him amidst the music and noise. “Alina, hey. Hold on, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “No, tomorrow won't work,” he called to someone else. Another male voice in the background. “Well, then cancel it.” They went back and forth long for so long I put the phone on speaker and set it down, eager to wrap my dripping hair in a towel.

  “You there, babe?”

  “Not for long,” I teased, leaning close to the bathroom mirror. Was that a zit?

  “Sorry, sorry. You know how it is with these guys.”

  “Which guys?”

  “The band the girls hired for that wedding.”

  “Oh, right. But that’s next Saturday, I thought?” I looked around for my planner, momentarily panicked I’d confused the dates.

  “Yeah, but they wanted to rehearse…figured we could work something out, like, live entertainment…” He rambled on for a while, but he just needed to vent. This kind of stuff happened all the time at the bar, especially now that Ivy and Ariel used it as a venue sometimes. “Anyway. Sorry. I’m just…frustrated. And tired.” And worried about his dad, I knew.

  “It's okay,” I said, slathering moisturizer on. “How’s the rest of your day been?”

  “Busy as fuck. Some art festival’s happening in town.”

  “Damn, that was today? I wanted to check that out.”

  “Yup. Meanwhile, Ivy and Ariel are getting on my nerves about this wedding…I don’t even want to be here for that shit.”

  “I don’t either,” I said with a chuckle. “But they’re paying us.”

  “Yeah. I keep telling myself they’re doing Larsen’s a favor, but it doesn’t feel like one.”

  It really didn’t, but as taxing as hosting these events was, the money was good, and the exposure even better. Plus, Ivy was like family and this business was her baby. I knew Jude would do anything to help her, and I wanted to support her, too.

  “What’ve you been up to?”

  “Caroline and I tried out that new café by the waterfront in Frederiksted,” I said. “But I’ve been home most of the day.”

  “Nice. How’s Midnight?”

  “Peeing everywhere. He’s outside right now.”

  Jude chuckled. “I think I’m going to head out soon. It’s still busy, but Maggie and the new guy are holding things down.”

  “Sounds good.” Knowing he’d be home soon made me want to cheer, but I tamped that down. For one thing, the bar was important—I got that. If he needed to be there, he needed to be there. Also, who was I—Midnight? “We can Netflix and chill.”

  That got a laugh. Lately, with our schedules, it was more like Netflix and fall asleep, but that was okay. “I’m down. You start dinner yet?”

  I yawned, eyeing the fridge. “Nope.”

  “Want me to bring some of those burritos you like home?”

  “Definitely.”

  ~

  Ariel passed in a blur, murmuring into her phone’s headset like she was in the Secret Service…if the Service rocked pink bandage dresses and stilettos. How she kept upright, I’d never know.

  “Um, Alina, we’re a little low on frosé,” she said, pursing her lips.

  Constraining an eyeroll, I nodded. She and Ivy were running this shindig, even if it was at Jude’s bar. “I’ll get right on it.”

  “Make sure you do.” Flickering her eyes over me, she spun around and hea
ded back downstairs, where the wedding’s cocktail hour was wrapping up.

  I hated her. I didn’t want to, but I did. Wiping my hands, I grabbed my phone and texted Jude.

  Anymore frosé in the freezer?

  Just refilled. We out already?

  Ariel said it was low.

  He sent back a thumbs-up emoji. I returned my phone to my apron, smiling up at the young couple who’d wandered upstairs. “Hi, welcome. Do you need help finding your seats?”