by Eden Butler
The noise from the party was lower out on this property and by the time they moved onto the beach and down to the black rock over the ridge, Lily felt confident that Zee wouldn’t run off and she dropped the girl’s hand.
A few feet up a small embankment, sat a patch of palm trees and low growing grass. The limbs were heavy and thick enough to hide anyone wanting seclusion from the beach bums angling on the shore.
“Liam would take me here when I was a kid…after…” Lily got to the middle of the embankment and sat against the largest of the four trees in the center of the grass. “I’d ask him to bring me home every so often, when I’d miss my mom so bad the heartache kept me up at night. He’d get so tired of hearing of me nodding off in class or seeing me doze at the dinner table that he’d throw me in his Jeep and we’d sit in the driveway, just watching the house.”
Next to her, Zee lowered into the grass, leaning over Lily to pull the rum out of her grip. “You wouldn’t go in?”
“Never. I couldn’t. At Keilen’s the other day, that was a fluke. It was spur of the moment.” There had been a reason for the distraction, the easy jaunt into his home, but she wouldn’t tell Zee that. “When an hour would go by and all I could do was stare up at the house, holding onto the car door handle, he’d pull me out of the Jeep and we’d come here.”
She closed her eyes when a swirl of wind passed around them, smiling at the feel of the sea salt on the breeze. Next to her Zinnia shook her head, barely sipping from the bottle as she watched the waves across the shore growing taller and taller.
“Sometimes I miss them so much I can’t breathe at all,” Zee said. She leaned her head against the palm tree, attention on the clouds overhead. “That’s what got Ano and me talking at first; he said his dad would have throttled him if he was alive. The car he wrecked was the only thing his dad had left him.” She looked at Lily then, shoulders relaxing and the smallest smile twitched on her lips. “We started talking about our parents and not having them anymore and it…well…” Zee drank again, tapping her index finger against the glass, lost a little in whatever she remembered. “Mainly, we talked about how bad it sucked, being orphans.”
“He had his grandmother,” Lily teased, nudging Zinnia’s leg when she frowned. “Old women tend to forget what it’s like to be young.” Lily took the bottle when her niece offered it. “They forget what it’s like to not know much about keeping a house or being domestic. Maybe that’s my fault. I didn’t raise you to make a man happy.”
“You raised me to keep myself fed, my clothes clean, and my head full of things that are important. Things Leanni didn’t seem to learn.”
“Don’t discount her, sugar,” she told Zinnia. “She’s smart. She’d have to be to run a successful business.” The nod Zee gave Lily was brief, but certain, as though she reluctantly agreed despite herself. “I know she’s rough around the edges, but you have to remember she’s traditional. Lots of people here are. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but you’re going to have to come to an understanding with Ano about how stupid he is where his granny is concerned.” Zee gave Lily another nod and she noticed the tension in the girl’s shoulder lessened furthered, then again when she drank more rum. Lily watched her smiling, realizing when Zinnia admitted to needing her, she meant it.
“Don’t be afraid of her,” she told her niece. “I’ve seen people like her a hundred times in the courtroom. She tries to take control of the situation by being passive aggressive in her moves and comments. Don’t let her. Stand up to her. I suspect you’ll only have to do it once before she backs down.”
“That’s what Ano said.” Lily nodded, motioning with her chin for Zinnia to keep the bottle when she offered it to her. The girl leaned further against the tree, hair flying into her face as she held the bottle between her folded arms. “He tells me to stand up to her because he can’t. He even admitted he liked being bossed around but that he wanted me to do it now.” She exhaled, head shaking. “He’d rather just let her—let all of them—have their way. It’s cultural, all the family pitching in. I hadn’t really realized it before, but the Samoans I’ve been around don’t keep to themselves at all. Family is everything. They share everything and do everything for each other. It’s not even abnormal for generations—children, parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins, uncles all to live together. It took some getting used to, all that family together all the time.”
Lily glanced toward the house. “That was just a preview, I take it?”
“Yeah,” Zee said, pointing the bottle across the beach. “Ano’s birthday party? That’s nothing at all. I can’t even imagine what the wedding will be like. Pure insanity.”
“And you’re okay with that? All that family? All that intrusion for the rest of your life?”
Zinnia thought about it for a moment, her features shifting for a handful of seconds—nothing at all to Lily’s mind, before she answered. She hardly hesitated. “Of course I’m okay with that. Leanni is insane and bossy as hell. But, Lil, I love Ano. I…sometimes I think of him and my heart goes all stupid and wonky and races like I’ve just sprinted ten miles.” She sat up, the bottle dangling from her fist as she wrapped her arms around her knees. “We can sit together and not say a word. He’ll move his fingers down my shoulder or in my hair like it’s an afterthought, like it’s something he does with the same thought he puts into breathing. It’s just natural.”
Lily had no idea what that was like or if she’d ever experience anything remotely similar. But as Zee paused, eyes unblinking and the soft, small grin picking up the right side of her mouth, Lily realized her niece had found something on her own; something they’d both lost a long time ago—somewhere to belong.
“This life he wants me to live,” she said, voice soft, a little awed, “it’s nothing like what you and I knew. It’s big and noisy and completely overwhelming, but Lil, I’ll stand in the middle of that storm, endure all that madness if it means at the end of it, I’ll get Ano and me and those afterthought moments for the rest of my life.”
Lily had held something sweet a long time ago. It had only lasted for a night. That time with Keilen, her dream, her fantasy made real, had been the closest she’d come to something that might have lasted. Now it was back, he was, ready for her to take and in the middle of that beach, with her niece going on about the storm she’d gladly endure, Lily understood something she never had before—sometimes the storm broke. Sometimes it burned. Sometimes that storm was the very thing that strengthened those who weathered it.
“If you’re happy,” Lily began, going silent when Zinnia’s laugh cut her off.
“I’m stupid happy.” She handed Lily the bottle and wiped her hand on her shorts. “He’s afraid of his lolo granny and she’s the bossiest woman on the planet. His aunties want the most ridiculous fanfare for the wedding and I probably will have very little say in how it all turns out, but yeah, Lil, I’m very happy.”
“Okay. Good,” Lily said, standing before she offered a hand to her niece. The girl took it, following her aunt with the rum in the crook of her elbow. Lily loved the smell of the beach and the feel of Zee next to her, a smile on her face despite the chaos they were walking back toward. “Just make sure you stand up for yourself. If you don’t like something, tell them. If you don’t, you’ll spend the rest of your married life killing yourself to make his family happy. There should only be two people in a marriage.”
“I will, Lil. Trust me.” They passed over the property line and took their time walking through Keilen’s yard, back toward the noise of the crowd. “I was gearing up for it when you kidnapped me.”
Around the house there was a lingering crowd—kids chasing each other in the yard, some coming precariously close to the remains of the old garden fence and half-standing swing set. On the porch, Lily spotted Ano and his cousins, as they listened to a younger man, a full foot taller than her niece’s fiancé, but thinly built.
“Mekko,” she told Lily when they both watched the men as they s
at around the porch swing near the steps. “He’s not local. Only here for the weekend, I think.”
They came closer to the house, but didn’t take the stairs, deciding, instead to move around the front, toward the drive. Lily smiled, watching how coolly Zee ignored Ano, a small seduction that made her laugh to herself as they moved away from the stairs. He didn’t pull his attention from Zinnia the entire time.
“You getting a burn from the fire shooting at you right now?” she asked her niece. They came to front drive and both leaned against the work truck Ano lent to his helpers when they were between vehicles.
“He’s a little drunk, I bet, and wondering if I’m mad at him.” A quick glance at the porch and Zee shook her head, noticing that Ano had moved from the swing to come around to the front side of the house. “He asked me about five times if I was upset within an hour of their arrival.” She turned, leaning on the truck so that her back was to the house. “I told him last night that we should go away from his birthday. I had a feeling they’d do something like this, but he wanted to stay home and watch the All Blacks playing Australia on the satellite.” She flipped her hair off her shoulder, pretending to frown as she winked at Lily. “Let him stew a little. Serves him right.”
From her vantage point, Lily could see Ano doing just that. His cousins went on talking, they even leaned next to him as he rested his elbows on the railing and watched Zinnia, his focus sharp and unflinching from her.
“He doesn’t seem too happy for a birthday boy,” she told her niece, withholding a laugh when the girl rolled her eyes. “How long are you going to ignore him?”
“Until we finish this,” she said, holding up the half-full bottle of rum. To demonstrate, she downed three large gulps and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, waggling her eyebrows when she finished. “Now,” Zee said, moving to the back of the truck to lower the tailgate. She patted the spot next to her when she sat and Lily joined her. “Tell me about Lincoln and why the hell he’s standing on the corner of the balcony all alone and gawking down at you like a creeper.”
She hadn’t lied to Keilen. There was no need to worry Zee, not when she had enough on her plate. But she’d be honest. They’d always been honest with each other over the years. It was the only way they could be.
“It’s just some things at work got twisted and he wants to make sure I know he’s the lead on it. He’s the only one with access to the partners while we’re here, so I’m stuck with him until we hear back from our boss.”
“And that requires him staying here?”
“Until we get a call, yeah, I think so.”
Zee looked over her shoulder, eyes squinting as she stared at Lincoln. “I don’t get a ‘just business’ vibe from him, not the way he looks at you.”
“He’s controlling and loves to ‘mansplain.’”
“That it?” She looked again, snorting after a quick survey of Lincoln. “I think he has a crush.”
“He can have one.” Lily grabbed the rum, taking a few sips that felt thick, but sweet on the back of her throat. “It won’t be reciprocated.”
“And who would you reciprocate with? Hmm? Keilen?” Zee nudged her, laughing when Lily shot her the bird. “Is that asshole why Dr. K is treating the interns like disobedient frat boys?”
Lily shrugged, rubbing her neck as a distraction. “Things got complicated with Keilen.”
“How complicated?”
She glanced at her niece, not giving her a full look. “We…we kissed and made out a little.” Lily didn’t want to see the stupid grin or how the girl danced a little in her seat.
“Knew it.”
“Don’t be smug.” She forced the bottle back in Zinnia’s hand, eyes rolling. “It’s no big deal.”
“Please. It’s the biggest deal ever. You and Dr. K.? Man, that would be amazing.”
“Not so amazing when I have to leave.”
Zinnia frowned, setting the bottle down before she folded her arms. “You don’t have to, you know. You can stay here. You can come home, Lil.”
“We’ve had this argument before.”
“And no matter how many times we do, I’m still right. You know how it was after college. You know I drifted. God, I was so homesick.” She turned, moving closer to Lily to brush the hair from her aunt’s shoulder. “This place, Lil, you know it better than me, it gets inside you. It’s a living, breathing entity that can’t be quieted. You could travel a million miles. You could put as much space between yourself and the past and it still won’t silence the voice inside you.”
“What voice?”
“The one that tells you where you belong.” She took Lily’s hand, squeezing her fingers. “The one that tells you to come back.” Zee managed two large sips of rum, finishing the bottle. In an instant, her demeanor changed and something sweet, something mischievous had shifted her expression. “I bet you if you stayed, you wouldn’t regret it.” Keilen had told her the same thing and Lily wondered if those were empty words or the promise of what her life could be.
Zee straightened, stepping to the side of the truck as she looked down the driveway, then followed Keilen’s Mercedes as it pulled into the drive next door. “I bet you there is a lot waiting for you here. You just have to be willing to fall a little, Lil.”
Chapter Fourteen
Lincoln was not a man to take disappointment well. It went against his nature to settle and what he’d been expected to settle for this day was Lily’s indecision. It irritated him how cavalier she was being about the state of her career. But then, she was a stupid woman, led by her emotions. Her not wanting to do the job complicated things. But to stay here? In this place? God, she’d lost her mind.
Now she was just being lazy, idly chatting with her niece while the crudest, loudest people imaginable drank and ate and did unconscionable things like make out in not-dark-enough corners and cackle when even the most asinine things were uttered.
“You want a drink, brah?” one of the boys who’d settled around the niece’s fiancé asked him, merely shrugging and walking away when Lincoln only glared at him.
“Ridiculous,” he said, pulling out his cell to check the flight schedule for the fourth time since he’d been there.
Two flights ready for tomorrow and a third later in the afternoon. He had no idea how long Lily would take to settle her niece with whatever it was she required, but he hoped it would be sooner rather than later.
“You that sober kine, brah? Drink?”
“For the love of— No, thank you,” he answered, nose flaring at the burning smell of cinnamon coming from the aluminum tumbler the boy offered him.
“Your loss, yeah.”
They’d not let Lincoln simply wait for Lily. Instead, he’d been pestered with invites to play cards and dominoes, to eat his weight in foods he’d not touched in over a decade and to drink and drink and drink more until his wits were dulled and then only God knew what would become of him. These people were low-rent idiots only interested in laughing and carrying on like the world was not the cruel, cutthroat field in which Lincoln enjoyed eradicating his enemies and attaining what he wanted. At present, what he wanted was Lily Campbell’s total submission, and her clients, both of which had evaded him for nearly a year now.
His wants would take time. He knew that, but the threats that lay before him, the ones waiting for him when he arrived would take finesse in eradicating.
“Perfect,” he said to himself, watching as Lily’s niece left her, smiling wide as she passed the doctor Lily had been eating with that morning at breakfast. The small café had been substandard, the food boring and plain, but when Lincoln saw how closely Lily sat next to this Keilen person, how easily she related the embarrassing details of the pornographic pictures circulating around the office, he knew who his greatest threat was. The same asshole that walked across the lawn and stood in front of Lily.
He observed them—the smile Lily offered him so easily, the way he leaned toward her, arm outstretched on that filthy t
ruck so that his fingers nearly touched her shoulder. She didn’t seem to mind. Lily, in fact, was an entirely different creature in this remote place full of tourist traps and exaggerated surfer dude paradise. Lincoln thought it was all so primitive, beneath anything Lily needed, he was sure.
Keilen moved in closer, his mouth precariously close to Lily’s ear and Lincoln decided he’d seen enough. He’d let her have her fun. He’d let her do whatever she wanted with this man, no matter how carelessly she went about it.
For his part, Lincoln had work to do and calls to make. He moved down the stairs, dusting his jacket as he went, slowing his steps as he reached the truck where Lily and Keilen spoke and flirted like horny teenagers eager for a dark corner and no interruptions. Pathetic, he thought.
“Lily,” he started, not caring that the man was in mid-sentence, not really caring that whatever he’d been saying had made her laugh.
“Lincoln,” she said, pulling the smile from her mouth.
“I’ll be at the hotel the rest of the night. It would be wise for you to join me at ten tomorrow morning. I’ve scheduled a conference call with Ellis to discuss the remote access and if that will suffice.”
“Why?” she asked, head tilting.
“I am trying to help.” Jaw clenching Lincoln inhaled, glancing off toward the beach on the other side of the property to settle his temper.
“I appreciate your help, Lincoln, but I didn’t ask you to do that. If you’d just let me speak to Ellis…”
“I’ve been instructed to take lead on this…”
“If that’s the case, then you don’t need Lily, do you?”
Lincoln didn’t bother to respond to Keilen’s question, instead focusing on Lily and the lowering of her mouth as she watched him. “Why are you lead?”
“Because your access to the network is limited, and Ellis trusts me…”
“And he doesn’t trust me anymore? Even though I did nothing?”