by eXtasy Books
“Yeah!” Ferric reeled off a few more errors. “Her notebook rotates a full ninety degrees.”
“You’re the only kid in the world who would notice this stuff,” I said. “I think that’s so cool. You ever think about a career as a movie director?”
“There are so many things I want to do, Dad. My mind is filled with a million ideas. I think I’d like to create and direct videogames. I have a feeling I’m a bit like Dad.”
Francois cocked a brow. “Like me? How?”
“I’m a control freak.”
I laughed. Francois pretended to be affronted, but it was true.
“You’re a security perfectionist,” Ferric said. “I’m more a creative perfectionist. To me, it has to look beautiful, but it also has to make sense.” He paused. “That’s what I want to do.” Light flooded his face. “I want to make something that’s a combination of those two things.”
Man, and to think when I was thirteen, I was still moping about the Repco boys’ bicycle.
The bacon arrived and he became a little boy again.
“What are we going to do in St. Martin?” Mom asked. “What’s the plan?”
“No plan.” Francois grinned, draining his coffee cup. “I think it’ll be fun to just hang out, eat some good food.”
“Cool,” Ferric said. “I’ve never been to the Caribbean.”
“You haven’t?” This surprised me. I knew that both Francois and his mom came from there.
“But I thought your mom got married and had her honeymoon there,” Francois said.
“She did.” Ferric made a face. “I wasn’t invited.”
My mom’s expression turned fierce. “I’d like to stop by her house when we get to Miami and kick her bee-hind.”
Ferric grinned, licked his fingers and wrapped his arms around her.
“I love you, too, Grandma.”
Leilani had arranged to pick us up and drive us to the airport. She and Mele were leaving for their honeymoon in various towns in the state. They’d borrowed her Mom’s Buick again and it was big enough for all of us to squeeze into until we reached the airport. I was going to miss them, but they assured us they’d be back in Hawaii a few days after us. They hugged us all, paying extra attention to Ferric, who lapped it all up.
“We’re crazy about the wedding gift you gave us,” Mele said to me. “I can’t believe you bought every single one of the La Chamba clay oven cook wear items we wanted.”
I grinned. “They’re waiting back home for you.”
She shook her head. “That’s when I knew I loved my wife, you know. I’ve coveted that Colombian cook wear for years and so has she.”
I was so pleased. I knew they really wanted the cooking pots and baking dishes on their bridal registry, so Francois and I bought all the ones they’d listed. From our hearts to theirs.
“Whose idea was it to wrap the order confirmation sheets from Williams Sonoma in that beautiful box?”
“Ferric’s,” I said. “It looked so pretty, didn’t it?”
I remembered what he’d said at the breakfast table. We could have given them the computer printout. Of course, they could also just have checked their own bridal registry, but Ferric made it look spectacular with ribbons and lace and gorgeous tapa-print paper, in honor of Mele’s Hawaiian heritage. It was a gift, and presentation, that made sense, but it was also beautiful. I think I realized in that moment that we had a pretty amazing kid in our lives.
Her eyes moistened. “I love that boy.”
“So do I, Mele.”
She put a perfect, manicured hand on my arm, then went over to hug him again. Mele was gorgeous. A true island goddess. I watched Ferric blush as she thanked him for gift-wrapping the box. Everybody had come up with creative ways of letting the women know what their gifts would be without schlepping the heavy items all the way to Hartford, but I knew they would never forget Ferric’s handiwork.
Leilani took me aside.
“Benny wants to talk to you. He’s got some case he wants you to work on. I told him you’re on the way to St. Martin, but just so I catch a break from his nonstop whining, call him, will ya?”
I nodded.
“Good man. “Look after each other,” Leilani said as they took off again.
I felt relief, I must say, that we were on our way. I didn’t mind leaving Hartford. Especially with those two gunmen on the prowl for tourists.
Our American Airlines flight to Miami was fun. Ferric and I played Scrabble, Francois worked on his laptop and my mom knitted a sweater for her new grandson. It was avocado green, her favorite color in the world. Just ask her kitchen. Contrary to popular belief, it can get chilly in Hawaii, especially in winter. Our home on the North Shore is also very prone to severe storms that are a goldmine to surfers. Oh, come December, he would need the sweater. But did anyone in the world need one the color of avocadoes?
Apparently my mom did and surprisingly, so did Ferric. I think he’s genuine joy in the venture was the love that went into the task of having his first handmade sweater. I had no idea how he’d actually feel walking around in it when he started school at Punahou.
We changed planes in Miami. As we waited at the departure gate for our short flight to the island, Ferric and my mom went upstairs to raid the Boca Bons store for truffles and cookies.
“Here,” he said, when he came back, pressing a truffle to my mouth.
I bit into it and almost came in my pants. “What is it?” I asked.
“A truffle brownie. Amazing isn’t it?”
Francois finished the rest of the brownie. “Do we have more for St. Martin?” he asked.
Ferric shrugged. “I think we just ate them all.”
We all trooped upstairs via the escalator and my heart fell to my shoes. There, unmistakably coming down toward us was Kaolin.
He saw me, glanced away and did a double take.
“Who was that?” Ferric asked.
I pretended I didn’t know, but my mom, who was standing behind me, piped up with, “That was Kaolin.”
“Who’s Kaolin?” Ferric stared at me.
“His good for nothing ex,” Mom chirped.
Ferric stared at me.
“You loved someone before Dad?”
I caught Francois’ smirk and leaned a little closer to him. He took my hand as we stepped off the escalator. I took Ferric’s hand and he took Mom’s. We were your typical, co-dependent Hawaiian family. Aloha!
“Did you love him a lot?” Ferric seemed upset.
“Who?”
“That Kaolin guy.”
“Of course not. It was over a long time ago.”
“Then what’s he doing here?” Ferric wanted to know.
Good question. “I have no idea, sweetheart. I haven’t talked to him in a long time.”
“But you love Dad more.”
“Hopelessly.” I caught Francois’ grin. He bought a giant box of truffle brownies and we trooped back downstairs again. I was dismayed to find Kaolin sitting in our row of chairs at the departure gate. As soon as he saw us though, he raised his magazine to his face. It was a copy of Mad. I was glad to see he’d kept up his intellectual pursuits.
“Why did you break up?” Ferric asked.
“It wasn’t a good relationship. Then I met your dad and that was it for me. I fell madly in love with him.”
Ferric turned to stare at Kaolin who resolutely held the magazine to his face.
“Because, you know, Dad, I’ve seen that guy back home.”
“You have?”
Francois sat up straighter in his seat.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.” Ferric shrugged. “I saw him one time when we were at Haleiwa Joe’s having dinner…and another time we were in Waikiki and I looked up and he was watching us.”
Holy shit…Francois is gonna have a meltdown.
“How many times have you seen him?” Francois asked.
“A few. Maybe it was a coincidence.”
“I’m sure it was,”
I said, but even my mom’s eyebrows had shot sky high.
“Excuse me a moment.” Francois got up and left us. Silence descended between us. I felt a moment of relief that he hadn’t gone over to confront Kaolin. Maybe he’d just gone for a leak.
“Is Dad jealous?” Ferric asked.
I smiled. “A little.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.” Ferric chewed his lip.
“You did nothing wrong,” I assured him. I was shocked to hear that Kaolin had obviously been following me. I’d never even noticed. I was so consumed with my new life that nothing else penetrated my little bubble when I was with Ferric and/or Francois.
Kaolin Grace had once consumed my world, too. And then he cheated on me. Twice. The first time, I fled the island, went to New York and honed my accounting skills. I’d thrown myself into a new and potentially exciting career of forensic accounting. It proved to be my salvation. I worked a couple of hundred criminal cases and then, I missed home. Two years after I left in tatters, I went back, whole and ready to jump into life again. And then he hired me to help him fight a criminal conviction.
Yes, he’d been innocent of the crime of money laundering and drug smuggling, but on the rare occasions I thought about Kaolin, such as when gunmen held me up at traffic stops, my only thoughts were how stupid I had been to let him into my heart a second time.
I slipped my hand into Ferric’s, squeezing it, I hoped in a reassuring way.
Francois returned and looked smug about something. As he sat beside me and draped his arm across my shoulders, it didn’t take long for me to see why he was feeling so self-congratulatory.
Two uniformed airport police officers circled the waiting passengers and zeroed in on Kaolin. I heard his protests. His magazine fell to the floor. They frog-marched him away. As he passed us, Francois’ mouth descended on mine.
I had a feeling a strip search was in Kaolin’s immediate future.
He didn’t make it onto our flight. I waited until we were airborne to ask Francois as casually as I could, “So, do you have friends in high places in every US city?”
Francois grinned. “Of course I do. All’s fair in love and sex, baby. Besides, he might actually enjoy a cavity search.”
I laughed then. “I don’t think so. He’s the most closeted gay man I know.”
“Babe, they’re the ones who enjoy an anal probe even more than those fabulous alien abductees.” He took my hand in his. “Was he good in bed?”
“Not as good as you, Francois.”
He shrugged off the compliment, but I knew he was pleased. I’d never seen him like this.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing.” A few seconds later, he said, “I just realized how fragile it all is. I want to do my best to give you the most amazing life possible.”
“You do,” I assured him. “Ask my mom. She’ll tell you. I’ve never been so happy, Francois.”
I heard a gasp from the other side of the plane and we all craned to get our first glimpse of St. Martin. We were about to start our adventures in paradise.
My first glimpse of the Villa Prana left me speechless. We’d had a smooth run in our rental car from the airport to a place called Dawn Beach. I couldn’t believe that as we entered the gated community of Dawn Beach Estate, we pulled into the driveway of the biggest, most luxurious house on the block.
“Way cool!” Ferric said, running from room to room.
I’d never seen anything like this house. Each room had wide, open views of the ocean and opened up to small tide pools, baby wading pools or the large pool overlooking the sea. It was the most exquisite thing I’d ever seen.
Mom and Ferric picked their rooms and I could see them jumping up and down on their queen-sized beds as Francois and I drifted to the master suite. It was an explosion of blue and white magnificence. It had a king-size bed, which was lovely, but wasted on us. We slept sandwiched together as if in another life we’d been forced to sleep on a single bed.
“Do you like it?” Francois asked, his expression anxious.
“Like it? Baby, it’s incredible. How are we supposed to return to reality after this?”
He grinned. “Well, we have it for two whole nights. I can’t wait to fuck you in the bed, Mingo.”
“Do we have to wait?”
His eyes turned dark. “Funny how our thoughts run along the same lines.”
He locked our bedroom door and ran to me, pushing me onto the bed. He undid my pants with deft flicks of his fingers. He moved them down my legs. I arched my ass so that I could help him. My boxer briefs grazed his chin and his mouth went straight to my hardened cock. He sucked the head through the fabric. I fell back as he claimed me, pushing my underpants down. For a guy who’d once enjoyed the sexual company of women, he sure knew his way around a man’s cock. He licked my shaft up and down, sucking the head into his mouth with enough force that I almost came.
Oh, he was good. I never felt teeth with Francois, but his mouth could bring me the kind of bliss I’d only really heard about until I met him. His hands moved under my ass, squeezing my cheeks. I was a babbling wreck. He sucked on me, his fingers holding me close. He released me, allowing my cock to bob against his lips.
“You’d better come hard for me, Mingo, or else.”
He swallowed me up again and I flooded his throat.
I came hard, so hard I could see spots dancing in front of my eyes, but for my exacting man, it was not good enough.
“Not bad, Mingo, but we both know you can do much, much better than that.”
Mom was in the kitchen when we roused ourselves from our fabulous bed.
“It’s got quite the welcome package,” she said, pointing to four lobsters she’d just pulled from the fridge. “There’s a note that says they were poached this morning. There’s butter sauce in the fridge and salad makings. There’s eggs and bread for breakfast tomorrow. Francois, this must have cost you a fortune.”
She threw herself in his arms and he hugged her.
Ferric shouted at us from the pool.
“Dads! You gotta come try this!”
We went back to our room, threw on our swim shorts and jumped into the pool with him. I felt the weight of the past twenty-four hours falling away from me. It was luxurious and yet familiar. The call of the ocean had always been strong for me.
Ferric and Francois fired up the barbecue and grilled the lobsters, which we ate with our fingers. Mom found some bottles of sparkling apple juice and we toasted each other on our brilliance for coming here.
In the afternoon, we walked down to the beach, Ferric looking relaxed and happy. He ran ahead of us, ran back again. He was like a little kid. The stress had left him, too.
Our time at the villa was perfect. We toasted marshmallows in the fire pit on the back lanai that night. Mom had never seemed happier. I hoped she’d given up all thoughts of Lars, but she was a romantic. I ought to know. I inherited that trait from her. I fell asleep with Francois’ arms around me, a soft throw tucked around us, marshmallows dancing in my dreams. It sure beat dreaming about a gun in my face.
The next day, Francois drove us all into the Dutch side of the island, which was spelled St. Maarten. Mom and I loved the stores, poring over Dutch cooking dishes and utensils, spices and rubs.
“You two have enough stuff back home to rival the best professional chefs,” Francois said, but he let us have our fun.
At Orient Beach, Mom and I fell in love with a store called Local Rums & Spices. The owner was an amazing woman who fed a giant colony of local sugarbirds as well as stray cats and dogs who lounged around her store. Almost all her money went to their upkeep and the animals were healthy and friendly. Ferric petted them all.
“Look,” Mom said, holding up a bottle of rum called bois bandé.
“It’s supposed to keep your bois healthy and strong. The way you and Francois have sex, you should get some.”
Ferric fell about, laughing.
“I should
buy some for Lars, too,” she said. “I want a guy whose bois are strong.”
Francois caught my gaze and we burst out laughing.
“What?” Mom asked, indignantly. “The last one was a little shaky in that department, if you get my drift.”
“Really?” This was news to me. “What did you see in him then?”
“I thought he was Hawaiian royalty, remember? He said he would make me his queen.”
Oh, brother.
“Every woman wants a tiara,” Mom said. Man, she was still crushed.
Down the street, Ferric tried on some Dutch fisherman’s caps and I bought him one. We crossed to a crowded shopping pier and somebody mentioned a street stall selling Wii games. Ferric was all about Wii. Especially the Mickey Mouse game which wasn’t due to be released until December. It was the hottest electronic game craved by every teen in the free world.
“I’ll be the first one to have it in all of Hawaii,” Ferric said. “Please, Dad, I’ll buy it with my pocket money. I have to have it.”
“Ferric, I’m a forensic accountant. I fight crime. I don’t…participate in it. If it’s being sold there, then it’s counterfeit. I can’t…condone…”
Man, the pools of sadness in his eyes made me want to boo-hoo like a motherfucker, as Francois was fond of saying. Ferric never made a big deal of stuff. He must have really wanted this game. I guessed my reputation as a pretty soft touch had preceded me.
“All right, all right,” I said.
“What’s going on?” Francois asked. He had been trailing us, talking on his cell phone again.
I pointed down the end of the pier.
“We’re going to walk down to the games stall and pick up a Wii thing for Ferric.”
“A wee thing?” He grinned. “W-e-e?”
“No,” Ferric said. “W-i-i.”
Francois shook his head. “Don’t be long. I’ll wait here for you. Let’s grab some food and go home.” His glance in my direction made my cock leap in my board shorts.
Ferric and I strolled down toward the stall as he raved about the Mickey Mouse game.
“It features all these lost Disney characters and it’s supposed to be state of the art technology, Dad.”