Clara in the Caribbean (Clara Andrews Series - Book 6)

by Lacey London

  Hearing the lock on the bathroom door click open, I roll onto my side and smile as Oliver steps into the bedroom. His crisp white shirt makes his tan look ten shades darker than it did this morning and his floppy chocolate curls hang loosely around his face. Watching him fasten his watch and run his fingers through his hair in a poor attempt to style it I let out a little laugh.

  ‘Here, let me do it.’ Taking a bottle of wax from the dressing table, I squeeze a dollop into my hands and set to work at fixing my hubby’s crazy curls.

  Unlike my own wild mane, Oliver’s hair seems to fall perfectly no matter how long or how dishevelled it gets. Standing back to admire my handy work, I nod in approval and plant a kiss on his cheek.

  ‘Perfect.’

  ‘Thank you.’ He raises his eyebrows mischievously and perches on the end of the bed. ‘So, how did it go with Vernon?’

  When we arrived back from The Hangout earlier, Oliver and Owen were still out at sea, so we haven’t had the chance to talk about it.

  ‘He’s fab.’ I shrug my shoulders and scratch my nose. ‘I wasn’t expecting him to be, you know that, but he really is fantastic. He’s super friendly, Noah loved him and he seems totally besotted with Li.’

  ‘That’s great!’ He rubs my arm encouragingly and reaches for his shoes. ‘I told you it would be OK.’

  I roll my eyes and wander over to the cot to check on Noah. I have to hand it to Oliver, he wasn’t at all worried about Vernon. He seemed to think that if he wasn’t serious about Lianna he would have lost interest long before now. Stroking Noah’s cheek, I pull the blanket over his legs and grab my handbag.

  ‘All that fun in the sun must have tired him out. I’ve never seen him sleep so soundly.’

  Oliver pokes his head into the cot and smiles fondly. ‘Looks like the Barbados lifestyle suits him.’

  I nod in agreement and lead Oliver onto the balcony. We have been here for three days now and we haven’t had more than thirty minutes alone together. Well, not without one of us snoring anyway. The water glistens under the moonlight, casting a shimmering strip of light across the sea. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I rest my head on his chest and breathe in his familiar aftershave. The Caribbean might be spectacular, but my favourite place in the world to be is right by Oliver’s side, wherever that may be.

  Laughter drifts up from the veranda below and I pop my head over to see Owen and Eve giggling happily. They really are a fantastic couple. Out of all of our friends they really are the most unlikely twosome, but they couldn’t be more perfect for each other if they tried. Spotting us staring, Eve raises her glass and motions for us to come down.

  ‘Be there in a minute.’ I whisper, not wanting to wake Noah. Spinning around to face Oliver, I tuck a stray curl behind my ear. ‘I think they’re ready for us.’

  Letting out a yawn, Oliver shakes his head in a bid to wake up. It seems that Noah isn’t the only one who could do with an early night. Smoothing down my dress, I slip back inside and check on Noah for a final time before we make our way down to the dining room.

  The delicious smell of chilli and garlic floats up the spiral staircase and I automatically lick my lips in anticipation. Lianna stayed at The Hangout and isn’t coming back until tomorrow, so it’s just the six of us tonight. To be honest, I am secretly glad as it gives us free reign to talk about Vernon without holding back.

  Taking my seat at the marble dining table, I greet the others with a kiss on the cheek before accepting a glass of fizz from Eve. Always the hostess with the mostess. Eve could even make Nigella look unaccommodating. Sipping the ice cold bubbles, I raise a hand in acknowledgment to James. I am about to ask him how on earth he manages to cook a three course meal for six people single-handedly when I spot his sous chef buzzing around the kitchen. I watch the two of them laughing merrily and can’t help but smile. We could all do with taking a bit of the happy go luckily Bajan spirit home with us.

  Turning my attention to Marc, I ask him how his day of babysitting went.

  ‘We actually had a lot of fun.’ Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, he reaches for his drink. ‘Madison chased the pelicans all afternoon and MJ ate his weight in ice cream.’

  Gina flashes him a disapproving look and shakes her head. ‘If he vomits later, you’re cleaning it up.’

  ‘And if you vomit later, you’re cleaning it up.’ Marc takes the glass of fizz out of Gina’s hand and places it on the table out of her reach.

  I let out a little laugh and disguise it with a cough when Gina shoots me a glare.

  ‘So…’ Owen smiles and leans back in his seat. ‘I believe that Vernon got the royal seal of approval?’

  ‘He did.’ I confirm happily. ‘I hate to admit it, but Eve was right.’

  ‘I told you!’ Eve trills, handing out bowls of spicy nuts. ‘I think they are perfect for each other.’ Her eyes mist over and I bite my lip to stop myself from pointing out that long distance relationships almost never work out.

  Don’t get me wrong, I like Vernon. I like him a lot. I’d even go as far as to say that he would be ideal for Li, if he lived in the same country. Taking a handful of nuts, I nibble in silence as Owen rambles about what a good guy Vernon is. Apparently he is quite a popular man on the island. It seems that everybody worth knowing knows Vernon Clarke.

  ‘I loved him.’ Gina gushes through a mouthful of nuts. ‘And Stephanie, she was great too.’

  ‘Stephanie?’ Eve’s brown creases in confusion as she helps James bring over our starters.

  ‘His new bar manager.’ I clarify, taking a steaming plate of scallops and mouthing thank you at James.

  ‘He finally found someone?’ Owen asks. ‘That’s great. The last time I spoke to him he was really struggling to hire someone.’

  ‘Apparently he had to poach Stephanie from a rival restaurant.’ I raise my eyebrows tellingly and pick up my fork.

  ‘That’s a little controversial, isn’t it?’ Marc adjusts the volume of the baby monitor and thanks James for his food.

  ‘It’s just business.’ Gina hiccups and reaches for the water jug. ‘You can’t take it personally.’

  ‘Do you know which restaurant she worked at?’ Owen asks as he tucks into his starter.

  ‘I think he said it was called… Driftwood.’ I say uncertainly. ‘I can’t be sure though.’

  ‘Driftwood…’ He repeats. ‘You ever heard of Driftwood, James?’

  ‘Down on the beach?’ James asks, drying his hands on a tea towel. ‘Yeah, I know it. They must be paying her some serious money to leave that place. It’s one of the busiest bars on the island.’

  ‘Really?’ Eve asks between mouthfuls. ‘Why have I never heard of it?’

  ‘It’s very exclusive.’ James winks. ‘Members only.’

  Obviously stunned into silence at the discovery of an exclusive bar that she is not a member of, Eve frowns and turns her attention to her food. I swallow a smile and chew my scallop carefully. I didn’t think there was an exclusive establishment in the world which Eve didn’t have a VIP card for. Resisting the urge to lick my plate clean, I put down my cutlery and flash James the thumbs up sign. He really is a fabulous cook. I don’t know what’s more impressive, having a live-in chef or the villa itself.

  ‘What’s everyone got planned for tomorrow?’ Owen asks, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

  ‘I thought we could go shopping!’ Eve squeals, clapping her hands together and smiling manically.

  Holding her hands up in protest, Gina shakes her head. ‘If it doesn’t involve a sun lounger, rum or the beach then I’m not doing it.’

  ‘Oh, come on!’ Eve pleads, reaching for her handbag and pulling out a wad of leaflets. ‘Look! There’s a fantastic shopping centre right here on the west coast!’

  ‘Not doing it.’ Gina sticks to her guns and folds her arms defensively. ‘Do you have any idea how many shops you drag me around back home?’

  Eve purses her lips for a moment before putting away her leaflets
in defeat.

  ‘I’ll go with you.’ I offer her a friendly smile and take a sip of my bubbles.

  ‘There you go.’ Owen reaches over and strokes his wife’s arm.

  Holding up my hands, I flash Eve a wink and lean back in my seat. ‘There’s just one condition. I’ll go with you… if Oliver and Owen watch the children…’

  A look of dismay washes over their faces as they stare at me in horror.

  ‘But… but we had planned on a snorkelling trip tomorrow.’ Oliver shoots me a please let me go look, but I shake my head in response.

  ‘You boys have been having all the fun.’ Eve chips in. ‘This is the most that I have seen of the pair of you since we arrived.’

  Looking at each other guilty, they sit in silence for a moment before Owen speaks up. ‘Fair enough. You girls go shopping.’

  ‘Yes!’ I give Eve a high five and mouth thank you at my husband.

  Watching his handsome face fall, I find myself feeling a little bad. ‘Don’t look at me like that. You have had your fun and now I can have mine...’

  * * *

  Ouch! This is not my idea of fun. Biting my lip to stop myself from shouting out in pain, I curse myself for letting Eve talk me into this. A lovely morning of retail therapy followed by a cooling Frappuccino in the sunshine quickly turned into my worst nightmare. Holding up a hand to stop Eve from taking photographs, I mentally curse her into oblivion.

  ‘Almost done.’ The plump lady murmurs, taking the final pieces of my hair and tugging on them tightly.

  When you have a badly burnt scalp, corn rows are probably not the wisest hairstyle choice. Hearing Eve giggle, I shoot her daggers and exhale loudly.

  ‘Finished.’ The jolly hairdresser announces proudly. Holding up a mirror, she flashes me a huge smile. ‘Looks good, yeah?’

  My mouth drops open as I look at my reflection. Not knowing what to say, I gasp loudly and nod in response. Every scrap of hair on my head has been tightly bound into dozens of little braids. I look bald. I look completely bald. Don’t ask me how, because all my hair is still there, but you can actually see my scalp. My very burnt, very sore scalp.

  Handing the hairdresser a wad of notes, I scramble to my feet and shove Eve into the seat. ‘Your turn.’

  ‘What?’ Eve laughs and attempts to stand up, but I sit on top of her and shake my head.

  ‘As a thank you for inviting us out here, I would like to pay for this for you.’ I smile sweetly and pass over more cash.

  ‘There’s really no need.’ Eve protests. ‘Besides, my hair probably isn’t long enough.’ She looks up at the hairdresser hopefully.

  Unfortunately for Eve, she shakes her head starts grabbing sections of Eve’s platinum blonde bob. ‘We can get a few in here.’

  Hiding behind my phone to disguise my laughter, I jab on the camera icon and snap away. A look of sheer terror washes over her face as her hair is pulled back tightly into neat braids. Not so funny now, is it? Hearing the fluorescent pink beads bang together as my head bobs around as I giggle, I drop my phone into my handbag and point to the tray of beads.

  ‘I think the green ones would look great with Eve’s skin tone.’ I smile devilishly and suppress a giggle.

  ‘Actually, green isn’t really my colour…’ She looks into the tray and frowns as she realises that green is probably the best of a bad bunch. ‘But I guess I could give it a go.’

  The hairdresser nods in agreement and proceeds to thread a selection of lime coloured gems into Eve’s hair. Unlike my full of head of braids Eve has escaped with just ten, five on each side but she looks equally as ridiculous. Thanking the stylist, we gather our shopping bags and make our way outside. Once I am sure that we are safely out of earshot, I turn to Eve and hit her on the arm.

  ‘Happy now? Look at the state of us!’ I attempt to keep my face serious, but Eve looks so comical that it is almost impossible.

  A giggle starts to grow in the pit of my stomach and I try desperately to control it. Pursing her lips, she reaches up and touches her braids gently. Her eyes turning to saucers as her hand lands on bare scalp.

  ‘Well?’ I persist, folding my arms.

  Opening her mouth to speak, she resorts to a shrug of the shoulders before bursting into hysterics. Unable to hold in my own laughter for any longer, I lean against the shop front as my stomach throbs with glee. People are starting to stare, but I just can’t control myself. Why the hell did I let her talk me into this?

  ‘Come on.’ Wiping away the laughter tears, I shake my head so that my beads jangle together. ‘Let’s go and get a drink…’

  To travel is to live…

  Chapter 8

  ‘Well?’ Eve and I stand in the kitchen and point to our new hairstyles proudly. ‘What do you think?’

  I look around the room at the blank faces staring back at me, not surprisingly it’s Gina that laughs first.

  ‘What the hell happened to you two?’ She jumps to her feet and runs across the kitchen. ‘I can actually see your scalp!’

  Joining in with her laughter, I throw my arms around Eve’s neck and jangle her beads. The three glasses of rum punch we had earlier have made the corn rows situation seem a whole lot funnier than it did a few hours ago. In fact, I am actually starting to like my new look; even if the beads do hurt my ears when they bang together.

  Sliding out of Marc’s arms, Madison throws her book on the floor and scuttles over. ‘You look silly!’ She points a finger at the pair of us and erupts into a fit of giggles.

  ‘I think Madison speaks on behalf of all of us.’ Owen mumbles, taking a sip of his beer.

  Copying his sister, MJ laughs too and begs to be picked up, only to tug on Eve’s plaits like a naughty little monkey. Prising him away and sitting him on her hip, Gina grabs Madison with her free hand.

  ‘Who wants to have a final dip in the sea before the sun goes down?’

  ‘Me!’ They squeal in unison as they fight like crazy to get down.

  Letting them loose, Gina grabs some sun cream from the kitchen island and runs out onto the balcony.

  ‘Those things aren’t permanent, are they?’ Oliver pipes up from his place on the couch. ‘You look like a pair of Avatars.’

  ‘I seriously hope not.’ I reach up and attempt to free my hair from the ridiculously tight braids.

  A good few minutes and a lot of painful pulls later, my tangled hair springs to life. I don’t even need to look in a mirror to realise that I am now rocking an extreme version of the 90’s crimped look.

  Wincing as my scalp stings like crazy, I kick off my sandals and make my way over to the couch. The cold tiles feel like heaven on my sore soles. An entire day of walking around the shopping centre has taken its toll on my poor tootsies and all I want to do now is snuggle up with my boys. Planting a kiss on Oliver’s cheeks, I pluck Noah out of his arms and curl up next to him.

  ‘How has your day been?’ I ask, throwing Noah up into the air and laughing as he squeals.

  Oliver frowns and attempts to remove the rest of my braids. ‘Can you take those things out of your hair, please? I really can’t take you seriously while you look like that.’

  ‘You don’t like them?’ I tease. ‘I was thinking we could get yours done too...’

  He eyes up my hair dubiously and lets out a laugh. ‘I don’t think so.’

  Handing over Noah, I set to work at removing the remaining braids from my hair.

  ‘You can’t take them all out!’ Eve exclaims in dismay. ‘We have to keep them until the end of the holiday!’

  ‘You have to be kidding me!’ I shake my head in response and tug out the last one. ‘Are you seriously keeping yours?’

  ‘I might do…’ She shakes her head and jangles her beads together.

  ‘I think that’s the rum talking.’ I mumble to Oliver, hoping that she feels different once she has sobered up. ‘I should get in the shower before Lianna arrives with Vernon.’

  ‘Then you better shower lightening quick.’ Owe
n chuckles. ‘They’re at the gates right now.’

  Feeling a little mortified at the thought of Vernon seeing me with hair like a deranged scarecrow, I frantically run my fingers through my mangled mane in a desperate bid to make myself look respectable.

  ‘What’s the plan for dinner?’ I ask, suddenly realising that James isn’t around.

  ‘I thought we could have a barbecue down on the beach.’ Eve takes a bottle of water from the fridge and slides onto a bar stool.

  ‘Great idea!’ I tickle Noah’s stomach and breathe a secret sigh of relief.

  As delicious as James’ food is, I am a little relieved to have a break from rich cuisine for the evening. A flame grilled burger and an ice cold beer sounds pretty perfect if you ask me. Hearing Lianna’s familiar laugh flood into the room, I look up to see my best friend falling through the doorway in a bubble of giggles. Flashing her a smile, I raise my hand in acknowledgment as Vernon follows in behind her.

  Watching Eve and Owen embrace the pair of them warmly, I can’t help but think what a lovely couple they make. I don’t just mean physically either, they actually seem to make each other incredibly happy. Standing up to greet them, I plant a kiss on Lianna’s cheek and pass her Noah, who is eagerly trying to climb over to his favourite auntie. Blowing a raspberry on his stomach, Li turns him upside down and laughs as he shrieks like an excited monkey.