His husband, Patrick, Sami reasoned, seemed to be the source of his fascination with Irish Punk. First-generation Irish, Patrick spoke with a bit of a brogue he’d picked up from his parents. Several years younger than the rest of them, he’d established a career as an attorney and agent for professional athletes, mostly football players, which meant he spent a lot of time texting and checking email on his phone, and yet he seemed always to be smiling at Nils and holding his hand. Sami had started to think of Patrick as the multitasker, more in admiration than annoyance. Black Irish, he had dark hair and eyes, a little bit of Spanish blood passed down through generations.
Luisa and Nils had remained close over the years, which was how they’d all ended up in this car together. A petite woman with wild red hair and a spray of freckles across the bridge of her nose, she seemed almost as enthusiastic as Nils, at least when she wasn’t making snarky comments. She had an edge to her that Sami had liked instantly, but that had been last night, and Sami had been three drinks into the evening before Luisa had arrived in a whirlwind of kisses and hugs, and then literally jumped into Harry’s arms, so that he’d been forced to catch her. The snark of Luisa Kershaw came along with a lot of eye rolling and sighing, and Sami had been surprised the night before to discover she wasn’t an actress, although she still wasn’t clear about exactly what Luisa did. Something in the fashion industry.
“Alex!” Luisa cried, leaning forward from the bench seat along the passenger seat of the driver’s side of the limo. She reached out and clapped her hands three times. “Come on, you sexy beast. It’s only day one. The party’s just getting started!”
Sami smiled, the words day one echoing in her head. If Luisa kept this energy up all week, it would be exhausting.
Alex shot Luisa the middle finger, which seemed to delight her, eliciting a peal of laughter. The woman actually bounced on her seat, and for the first time Sami wondered if there might be drugs involved. Either that, or the woman needs them.
“Have some of this pineapple juice,” Sami told Alex. “You’ll feel better.”
He sighed, massaging his temple, and reluctantly reached for her glass, which she pulled away from him. “I’ll pour you some of your own.”
Alex gave her a weak thumbs-up and a half-hearted smile to go with it.
Sami set her glass in a cup holder and started to get a fresh one from the bar in the back of the limo. She was halfway through pouring when Luisa sprang from her seat and landed on Alex’s lap, her knee banging Sami’s, her skull knocking against Alex’s. Sami spilled pineapple juice and nearly dropped the empty glass.
“Luisa, come on!”
She laughed and hugged him, immune to being admonished. “Wake up, handsome. Carpe the fucking diem. You’re in Hawaii with your gorgeous wife. You’re about to get on a boat worth more than any of us make in a year. I can promise you some topless sunbathing, lots of drinks, and late-night reminiscing. If I can get her drunk enough, I’ll even make out with Sami.”
“Oh, you will?” Sami said. “Do I get a say?”
Luisa hugged Alex tightly, grinning at Sami even as she smushed her face up against his. “Of course you do! You get to say ‘yes!’”
Sami wanted to drag her off Alex’s lap by the hair and remind her whose husband he was, and yet she couldn’t help grinning. Luisa might be a handful but promised to be entertaining as hell, as long as nobody decided to throw her overboard.
“Lulu, come and sit down,” Nils admonished her. “Behave yourself. We can taunt Alex later when he’s puking off the side of the boat.”
“That,” Alex said, “is likely to be prophetic.”
Nils smiled.
Patrick glanced up from his phone, amused. “Glad to see you seem to be coming around.”
The limo slowed and began to turn. Luisa finally crawled off Alex’s lap and went to kneel on the bench and peer out the window. Ten years out of college and she had the energy and general demeanor of a sixteen-year-old. Sami arched an eyebrow at Alex, who smiled tiredly. They’d been together long enough that words were unnecessary in times like this. She didn’t need to say a word to her husband about him having other women sit in his lap, regardless of whether he’d ever slept with them. In Luisa’s case, that would be a no, but Luisa wasn’t the only female among this group of old friends.
The limo rolled to a stop and the driver hurriedly threw it into park and jumped out to open the door for them. Sami had been disappointed that Kahale had been assigned to take the other group—this driver had been silent and serious—but when she climbed out of the back of the limo she saw him holding the door for his own passengers, the second car parked just a dozen feet away.
“Good morning, Sami!” he called to her. “Bon voyage.”
Alex slipped an arm around her. “You have an admirer,” he whispered.
Their driver had opened the trunk and begun to pull out their suitcases. Luisa took hers and turned toward them. “Come on, you guys!”
“You too,” Sami whispered back.
Alex laughed. His hangover seemed to be fading and Sami was glad. One glance at the various boats lining the marina and she felt herself drifting into fantasies of sailing away from the world forever. Not that she’d ever go without Tasha. Their little girl was home and in good hands. If the temptation to run away and start life over again ever turned into reality, she would happily have Alex and Tasha with her—anywhere she landed would be home, as long as she had them. But for this week, it felt good to be on their own, with no one to answer to but themselves.
Nils and Patrick took their time, mostly because Patrick had stopped to text someone. Luisa squeaked and ran over to the group climbing out of the second limousine. Nalani Tjan unfolded from the backseat, drawing Sami’s eyes to her long legs. She’d grown up in Hawaii but now lived in San Francisco with her tech exec husband James, who climbed out of the car behind her. With his beard and shoulder-length hair and weathered sandals, he looked very much at home in the islands.
They’d shared the car with Alliyah and Dev Basu, as well as Cat Skolis, who seemed the quietest of them all. Dev had a scruffy charm and had done his best to chat with the other spouses, bonding with what he called the outsiders. Alliyah worked for Goldman Sachs doing something that Sami had trouble understanding, which she suspected came partly from not caring and partly from the air of chilly indifference that surrounded the woman. That might have been jealousy talking—Alliyah and Alex had dated briefly in college—so Sami promised herself she would hold off judgment, give the woman a chance.
“You guys ready to go?” Dev called happily.
“Raise the anchor, Mr. Basu!” Sami replied. “Hoist the mainsail! Or whatever.”
Dev laughed and bumped Alliyah, who smiled at him and started to drag her suitcase toward the marina dock. The sweet glances they exchanged suggested a couple infatuated with each other, and Sami felt herself soften toward the woman. I guess I’m the bitch, she thought. But the jury was still out.
“You managing, baby?” she said to Alex.
“I’m such a lightweight. The only one with a hangover.” He gave her a sheepish look as they started down the pier after Dev and Alliyah, Nalani and James, and Cat.
“Oh, I have a feeling there will be a lot of hangovers this week,” Sami replied.
Luisa rushed up between them, matching their stride, dragging her bag behind her. “I’ll drink to that!” she cried happily.
They all laughed, and suddenly they were together. A group. Nils and Patrick caught up to them, Nils enthusiastically extolling the virtues of Harry’s sailboat, which apparently belonged to a category people actually referred to as “luxury sailing yachts,” as if that weren’t obnoxious to say out loud. Sami figured she’d just keep calling it a sailboat, although as they walked out onto the pier and she took in the hundred-foot ship she had to admit it was something far more than that. The name of the boat, emblazoned on the back, was Kid Galahad.
Sami slowed down to let Luisa get ahe
ad of them so she could slide up next to her husband. “What does that mean? The name?”
Alex smiled. “A combination of two things, I’d assume. It’s the title of an Elvis Presley movie, and Harry always loved Elvis. Plus he always wished he could be one of the Knights of the Round Table.”
Sami slipped her arm through Alex’s and kissed his cheek. “Boys.”
“What? I never said I wanted to be a knight.”
“You didn’t have to, my love.”
Luisa dropped back, having overheard. Cheerful as ever, she fell into step on Alex’s other side and shot a conspiratorial glance at Sami. “Your man didn’t want to be a knight. He wanted to be the Dread Pirate Roberts. Forever. We must have watched The Princess Bride a dozen times.”
“He still loves it,” Sami said. “Don’t get him going or he’ll start quoting.”
“To the pain,” Alex said, grimacing.
Luisa laughed, but Sami only smiled. There was a presumptuousness about old friends, the idea that they knew her husband better than she did, and it made her uncomfortable. In her head, she understood that these people had been intimate with an earlier Alex, a man who had no wife and no daughter and no career, and so could not really know him as well as his own wife. She knew it was a foolish thing to allow herself to be irritated by and she would have to get used to it.
Samantha Simmons, she thought, who ever knew you had such a jealous streak?
They were walking along the pier when they heard Harry’s voice booming from the deck of the boat.
“Come on, you lazy fuckers! Paradise is waiting!”
CHAPTER 5
Alex had arrived in Hawaii with some doubts. All his life, he’d grown up with the impression that the islands were the closest the world had to paradise, that a journey there would take his breath away, that he’d fall in love with the place. By the time he’d graduated from high school, he’d been too cynical for that kind of whimsy to take root in his brain. He and Sami had a good life, but he didn’t believe in some Shangri-la that would cure what ailed him, ease his spirit, or do any of that happy crap.
Now he’d spent a day on the island of Kauai, and he had to take back all of his hard-earned cynicism. As he climbed the ladder up from the dinghy, he smiled to himself. He knew the effect would fade, that the memory of the island would diminish and the once and future Alex Simmons would begin to doubt the vivid colors of the flowers, the honeyed purity of the air, the way his whole body had lightened. The hours they’d all spent together jumping from waterfalls and swimming in their natural pools … the peace he’d felt today would never be recaptured. It had been the single greatest vacation day of his life and the week was just getting started.
“Well, look at you,” a voice said above him.
Alex looked up, saw he’d reached the top of the ladder and that Harry waited for him, reaching down to take his hand and help him aboard. With a grin he failed to hide, Alex took his hand and scrambled onto the Kid Galahad.
“What did you think of Kauai?” Harry asked.
“You could just leave me here.”
Sami had been right behind him on the ladder. Now she called up to them, “I heard that!”
Alex and Harry both laughed—an easy camaraderie that had eluded them for so long—and turned to help Sami up together. She’d slipped her shorts back on, but they didn’t cover much more than her bathing suit, and her shirt remained tied around her waist. In her bikini top, with that flat belly, she looked like she belonged in this paradise.
“Don’t worry, my love,” Alex said. “I’d never let myself get marooned on a tropical island without you.”
Sami punched him lightly on the arm. “You’d better not.”
Half of their party were already on board. Nalani and James and Cat were down in the dinghy, taking turns climbing the ladder. The guy piloting the dinghy had been the surprise of the journey thus far. Harry’s first mate, Gabe Hogan, had been born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, but had moved to Hawaii at the age of seventeen and had never returned to the mainland, not even to visit family. Quiet and competent, with a confident, easy smile, Gabe somehow managed to be Harry’s friend and employee at the same time. They’d all been wondering how Harry would handle this boat himself, and Gabe had been their answer.
“We’ll set sail as soon as the dinghy’s stowed!” Harry called down to the water.
Gabe had Nalani by the hand, helping her to steady herself on the ladder. With his left, he waved the shaka hand sign up at Harry, which seemed communication enough.
“He’s a good guy,” Alex said.
The boat swayed beneath them. The sunlight had turned golden as evening approached, and maybe that accounted for the shadow that crossed Harry’s face. Alex couldn’t be sure.
“You’re wondering what he’s doing hanging out with me,” Harry said.
Sami slid her arm around Alex. They could hear laughter from below, where the others were showering and changing clothes, maybe mixing some cocktails.
“He didn’t say that, Harry,” Sami noted.
Harry shrugged. “Gabe’s a good influence on me. I pay him well, yeah, but if he quit he’d have another job in a day.”
“I’m sure…,” Alex began, but he pressed his lips together, refusing to finish the sentence.
“You’re sure what?” Harry asked.
He seemed at ease with the past, like he knew he might not be able to erase the hostility and resentment Alex had brought with him on this trip and he could live with it. Alex envied him that.
As always, Sami stepped in. “He’s sure there are brightly colored cocktails with little umbrellas in them somewhere on board,” she said. “And he’s going to drink one with me, just as soon as we put some clothes on.”
Harry arched an eyebrow. “Don’t get dressed on my account.”
Once, it would have irritated Alex, but Harry’s flirtation seemed almost by reflex, and besides, Sami didn’t need him to be her knight in shining armor. If she felt like Harry ever stepped over the line, she’d make it very clear.
Instead, Sami paused with a hand around Alex’s waist. “I’m sure we’ll all be skinny-dipping before the week is out, Harry, but meanwhile, I have to thank you. Truly. Alex will pretend otherwise, but today was the most relaxed I’ve seen my husband in years and we both owe you for that.”
Harry’s eyes softened and he seemed genuinely touched. “You don’t owe me anything. If the two of you really had that kind of day today, that makes me very happy.”
The ladder rattled against the railing and they all looked over to see Nalani scrambling to climb on board. With a quiet laugh, Harry went to help her.
“Go and get that drink,” he said over his shoulder, and then he was flirting with Nalani, threatening to cut her husband loose so they could sail away together.
The boat swayed and the rigging clanged against the masts as the wind picked up. Alex and Sami moved together toward the cockpit. Harry hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d described the Kid Galahad as a sailing yacht. The staterooms belowdecks were nicer than most of the luxury hotels Alex had ever slept in, all wood and brass and colorful cushions. The bathtub had Jacuzzi jets. The staterooms were forward, ahead of the living area, which comprised two large areas, one below and one slightly higher—not quite level with the boat’s deck. The inside cockpit, as Harry called it, had sofas and a mahogany coffee table and shelves loaded with books for anyone who wanted to get comfortable. Continuing aft, there were port and starboard doors that led out onto the deck and into the “outside cockpit,” which was covered only by a tight awning yet seemed even more comfortably and elegantly appointed than its indoor cousin. This was the place to sprawl and share meals and talk late into the night over too many drinks.
Half a dozen steps led up into the wheelhouse, which was situated on top of the inside cockpit. Gabe called it the pilothouse, which Alex thought was more accurate, though he was going to leave the argument to the actual sailors on board. The wheelhouse w
as claustrophobic, fine for one or two people, but not suited for a group. Harry had given them all the tour when they’d gotten on board. The wheel was attached to a black instrument panel festooned with throttles and dials and readouts for weather and radar and Neptune-knew-what-else. How two guys could sail this thing without help he didn’t know, but they had done a beautiful job on day one.
Now, as Alex and Sami passed through the starboard door leading to the inside cockpit, they heard laughter from within. Alex let himself exhale again. He didn’t want to lose all of the peace he’d found ashore.
They walked into the cockpit and found Luisa, Alliyah, and Dev putting glasses on trays. Gabe had brought their group back to the boat first, and they’d all changed out of their swimsuits into loose, soft, clothing. Alliyah had on a light cotton sweatshirt. She always said she had thin blood because she got cold so easily.
“Hey!” Luisa cried. “We were headed out onto the deck to watch the sunset. Come with!”
“Coconut mojitos!” Dev promised, gesturing to the drinks on the two trays they’d prepared.
“Sounds good,” Sami said. “Let us put on something dry and we’ll be right there.”
The others were barely listening, laughing and teasing one another over some joke that had been made before Alex and Sami had walked in. They were gone from the cockpit, out on the forward deck, moments later, leaving Alex alone with his wife.
Sami slid into his arms and kissed him softly. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and be shipwrecked here.”
“We can dream,” Alex said as they started toward the stairs that led to the staterooms below.
“I have to admit … It was hard to keep hating him today,” Sami said quietly.
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