Colin fell back in his chair. His shoulders fell forward and he let out an exasperated sigh. Just twist the knife before removing it from his back, to make sure he was truly ripped open and finished.
Claire touched his leg underneath the table and shot him a look of cluelessness. Frieda watched everyone, pouring more juice in their half-empty glasses.
“By the way, Frieda, thanks for the apple. You know they’re my favorite. Melanie won’t let me ever get any. Says it’ll pull out my teeth.” He grinned.
“You’re welcome, Mr. Prescott.” Frieda set down the pitcher and went back into the kitchen.
“Claire, you don’t mind bunking up with Frieda with our new arrivals coming, do you?”
Claire looked as if she didn’t know how to respond. She didn’t know who the Hamiltons were and she seemed taken aback by Mr. Prescott’s direct question to her. “Okay, I guess.”
“Dad, Claire doesn’t need to move from her room. Rent a hotel room for them to stay in. Claire was here first.” Colin’s face began to heat up.
“Don’t be absurd. The girl said she doesn’t mind. It should be no difference to you.” He washed his last bite of toast down with a gulp of juice. “And if the Hamiltons don’t mind, I’m fine with Emily bunking with you. We’re not that ancient to not know what young people do outside of the homes of their parents. I’m sure when you were in London, you—”
“Then it’s okay if Jason and I share a room?” Mallory popped up in posture and nearly screamed it out. “That way Claire won’t have to move rooms. What’s-her-name can just take Jason’s.” If she were a puppy, her tail would’ve began wagging.
“No, that won’t happen. Jason will remain in his room. Down the hall. Way down the hall.” Mr. Prescott shot a death look to his daughter. “It’s settled. Claire doesn’t mind. She’s already agreed and the arrangements are set.”
Somewhere, a gavel banged. Mr. Prescott had spoken. Colin spied Claire out of the corner of his eye. She sat motionless. He slowly turned toward her. She’d withdrawn her hand from his lap.
With a gust of wind, she threw her napkin on her plate and thrust back her chair before leaving the room. It almost fell backward on the floor.
Colin rushed out after her.
She was on the beach before he caught up to her. “Claire, would you wait up?”
She continued sprinting toward the fallen tree by the water’s edge. He knew that would make her stop. Before she reached it, she swung around. “Who the hell is Emily, and why is she coming with her family? But more importantly, why would it be normal for her to share a room with you?”
He touched her arm before she pulled away. “Dad is a jerk, Claire. Emily is a girl I dated on and off throughout college.”
“Why isn’t she in London, then?”
“She’s from North Carolina. Her family was visiting the same time mine came for Christmas. It was love at first sight…between her dad and mine.” He bent down to look into Claire’s eyes. He needed to make sure she was hearing the right words and understood this meant nothing to him.
“You see, her dad owns some property in North Carolina, along with a golf course. Before the week was over, he promised to sell a commercial building to Dad in order to outsource our medical supplies in North Carolina. Dad fell in love with the idea because that meant he could move out of the city and semi-retire at Mr. Hamilton’s golf course resort. He promised Dad a lot on the ocean. Mom was ecstatic. She wants to move out of the city.”
“So then why doesn’t he just move there with her? Leave you alone?”
Colin took a seat on the sand and drew up his knees. “Because a part of the deal was Emily and I were going to get married and I would take over operations in North Carolina and let Dad stop working altogether. His vice president, Mr. Keiser, would run the New York facility. He’d been wanting to expand operations for some time now.”
She sat down next to him. “I see. I guess. And just how long did you two date?”
“On and off for a couple years. I stayed single my freshman and sophomore years.”
He saw Claire shake her head, pinching her lips tightly together. “And this is your dad’s attempt to get you back together, or do you still love her and it never actually ended? I was just a pastime for you, after all?” Her tone became accusatory as her hand rested on her hip.
He jumped up. “I ended it before final exams, way before graduation. Dad knows that. I was on the phone when Mom told him. He just doesn’t want to accept it.”
“And Emily? How does she feel about you? Was it mutual that you two end it? After all, she is on her way here.” Her intense stare bore right through him.
He took a deep breath. He knew no matter how he said it, it wouldn’t come out good. But if there was anyone he wanted to always be truthful to, it was Claire.
“She didn’t take it so well. She had practically picked out her own engagement ring and had it waiting for me to pick up at the jewelry store for her.”
Claire had no reaction. Stoic was bad.
“So, it’s possible then, that she doesn’t believe it’s truly over? She could still be delusional and this little trip could mean there’s a chance for you. Heck, she could’ve even brought her own ring with her.” Her tone rose.
“Absolutely not! I told her it was over, Claire. I stopped taking her calls a long time before I moved in with my buddy, Clayton. She knows it’s over.”
“And what made it over for you?”
He brushed some sand off his hands. “I didn’t love her. And I know that’s true now by how I feel about you.” He fell to the sand and grabbed Claire by the arms. “Don’t you see, I only thought I loved her. And that was in the beginning before she became fixated on me.”
“Fixated, huh? How fixated? What did she do?” Claire pulled back from his hold.
“Incessant calling, showing up at night at my friend’s house, crying and saying she’ll never stop fighting for me. It was a mess.” Colin stared out at the water and shook his head.
Claire sighed. “And now she’s headed here to the beach house and you at warp speed. I don’t see how you’re going to stop her, especially with your dad rooting so hard for her. Did you notice how quick he was to boot me out? I knew he never liked me. Why did I even listen to Melanie and come here? Your dad views me as a pathetic loser. Just because I wasn’t raised on Park Avenue with a silver spoon up my butt. I’m surprised he offered me the guesthouse—he could’ve just told me to go back home.”
“He’s such a jerk. I’ll leave, Claire. We’ll leave. Let’s get out of here right now. Come on.” He pleaded with his hands.
“You’ll just end up running for the rest of your life if we do that. Let’s face it head on, Colin. You can tell Emily again, in front of your father, that it’s over between you two. Then we can tell him and anyone else who happens to be around by then, how we feel about each other. Your mother likes me. I think. No, I know she does. She was so nice when she stayed at my apartment with Mom. And Mallory would be happy for us. It would help her plight with Jason. Not that she needs it. She’s pretty strong-willed. I see them together, for sure.”
“I say running is easier.” He pulled her to him and squeezed her tight. Her soft hair brushed against his face. “Claire, I love you. I feel like the luckiest guy in the world right now. And it’s all because of you. I feel like with you I can do anything.”
“You can.”
He kissed her soft lips then picked her up and pretended to throw her into the water. She squealed and squirmed out of his arms, throwing water on him as he ran down the beach.
The Prescotts waited on the veranda for that storm that came with the Hamiltons’ arrival. Nothing would be the same after the end of that day.
Chapter Ten
A Shiny Plane
Claire gathered her things from the room when the Hamiltons’ car pulled in the driveway. She looked at Colin, who held her suitcase. His jaw clenched when
he heard his dad yell they were there.
“You can walk with me to the guesthouse if you’d like. Frieda and I decided to go there and stay, and let Emily have her own room, instead of sharing yours.” She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to reply.
“I agree. And thank you. I know what an ordeal this is. I wish I was going with you.”
She didn’t doubt this situation his father had put him in was quite a predicament for him. Never before had she relished the thought of being an only child with one parent. Too many members meant problems, it seemed. She pulled the overnight case from the bed and walked out with him. They were stopped by his dad at the end of the stairs.
“Colin, put that down and go out and greet our guests.” He took the broken-handled suitcase from his son. He stared at his hand after setting it down on the ground.
“Dad, I’m helping Claire. I’ll be back in a minute.” He reached down to pick up the case.
His dad leaned and whispered something in Colin’s ear.
“Fine.” He set the case back down and looked up at Claire. “This will only take a minute. I’ll be right back.”
Her chest tightened. She had about all she could take with Mr. Prescott and his bullying ways. “I’ll take it myself. I’m not an invalid.”
She snapped up the case, almost breaking off the handle entirely, and rushed past them.
“Claire,” Colin called out as she stormed through the kitchen.
She didn’t turn back. So far, he was failing at the stand-up-to-Dad plan.
She stood behind a tree and watched Colin greet the Hamiltons. Mr. Hamilton looked to be a spindly man. His belt could’ve easily wrapped twice around his waistline. The parrot-shaped nose on his face sat between two small eyes. Eyeglasses might’ve help take the beadiness out of them. He wore a golf hat that was plaid and a wild pair of pants. He seemed to enjoy shaking everyone’s hand. Mallory rubbed hers after the big squeeze.
Mrs. Hamilton was equally as tall as her husband. A gaunt-looking woman. Perhaps no one cooked in the family, or perhaps they just spent all their free time jogging miles up and down their pear-tree lined driveway. Her face was powder-white, with a pointy nose. She chose to wear long sleeves, no matter that the temperature was soaring in the mid-nineties that day.
Emily was shorter than both of them, her hair shoulder length and dark brown. Her nose was perky and her cheeks rosy. She wore khaki-colored Capri pants and a polo shirt with cute slip-on shoes. Someone Claire could see Colin dating, for sure. Which made her wonder why he was with her. Claire always saw herself as tall and lanky, with size eight feet and still sporting a boob size in the As. This Emily girl was packaged more to his match. A B-cup chick for sure, maybe even size six for shoes—Claire couldn’t tell from the distance she stood from them.
She watched as Colin shook Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton’s hands. Emily leaned in for a hug, but he kept her at arm’s length with a firm shoulder grip. Good boy. Satisfied with Colin’s body language, Claire continued on her way to the guesthouse. The sandy trail meandered through a set of tall pines that kept a natural border between both dwellings.
She opened the unlocked door and made her way to the bedrooms upstairs, settling on the first one she came to. The full-size mattress sat tall and was bordered by a painted white iron bed frame. It was the one she and Colin made love on. She saw how the pillows were still twisted under the pale-pink comforter. She set down her bags by the window, startled at first by the creaky floor in front of the closet door. All she could see was a view of the trees. She knew the beach wasn’t far behind them.
After she settled her things in, she strolled back to the house. She figured Mr. Prescott would win at this game if she chose to run away and hide. So she did the opposite and showed up for the challenge. Something had gotten into her since coming on this strange vacation. Colin made her want to put up a fight…be someone she wasn’t used to being.
She found everyone in the living room, sitting formally on the stiff brocade sofas and winged backed chairs. The only time she remembered coming into this room was to play tea party with Mallory when they were younger. They’d raise their pinkies and sip imaginary Earl Grey, discussing how their pretend children were driving them crazy.
“Colin, I don’t know how you could want to pilot one of those deathtraps. Me and the missus don’t care for flying. Get me on a boat or train any day. Those I can feel the land right under my feet.” His accent oozed a Southern drawl.
Mr. Prescott offered Mr. Hamilton a cigar from his box, stashed in the drawer of a side table. Mr. Hamilton shook his head no. “I don’t know why either. I hate planes, myself.”
“Then why did you tell me to put a bid on that airstrip in North Carolina, James?”
Colin pulled himself to the edge of the chair. “What airstrip, Dad?”
Mr. Prescott sat back down and leaned back in his burgundy striped chair. He set the box of cigars on his lap. “Well, son, it was going to be a surprise, but I guess the cat’s out of the bag. I’m buying you one of those godforsaken two-seater, twin engine planes for your graduation present. May God be with you when you fly it. ’Cause I know for damn sure I won’t be.”
Mr. Prescott wasn’t a stupid man, regardless of what people thought about his personality. He knew Colin wasn’t settled on returning to America to run the company. He’d detected it that past Christmas when they visited him in London. He’d already began asking if his vice president was still at the company. Colin was hinting in a change of plans for him, maybe venturing into another field. Mr. Prescott knew strategically the best way to corral a wild horse was to build a fence when he wasn’t looking. All it took was a plane to keep Colin’s focus off his father locking the gate.
Claire nearly slipped off the threshold at the entrance of the room. Mr. Prescott was pulling out the stops to control his son. What would he think of next? To bring back Amelia Earhart from the dead to instruct him how to fly it?
“Dad, are you serious? A plane? And my very own airstrip?” He nearly leapt from the seat of his chair, right into his dad’s master web.
Emily watched him with nervousness as she straightened her posture and began biting at her bottom lip. “Colin, when I heard what Dad was cooking up, I nearly died. Planes are so dangerous. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Oh, great sakes, Emily. They don’t let someone just take a plane out for a test drive. They’ll give him proper training.” Her father situated his binding belt and readjusted on the chair. “Now that doesn’t mean when he does get a license that I want you sharing a seat in the cockpit, honey. You just leave that hobby to Colin.”
Had Colin gone ignorant? He just sat there, smiling deliriously. Completely blind to his father’s feeble, albeit, master plan to keep his thumb on Colin. Is that all it took to make him forget his plan with Claire? A shiny plane and a stretch of land to take off from? Hello? The skinny guy said it’s in North Carolina! That’s states away from New York. Not to mention in the backyard of Emily Hamilton’s place of residence. Remember her? The psycho date from London? How could Claire compete with this new shiny nickel?
“Well, son,” Mr. Prescott said, full of self-accomplishment—even patting himself on the belly. “The airstrip is still up in the air. Mr. Hamilton put in my bid, but I’m still waiting to hear on it.”
Claire noticed Melanie on the chair by the back windows and wondered what her take was on this. She was all but covered with long stretches of vines from the plants Frieda collected and had displayed on the table next to her. There was a serene look on her face. A steady smile sat prominently on her face, where usually there was none. “I think it’s great, son.”
“All I got for my graduation was a trip to Paris,” Mallory interjected.
“Now, dear. That is a two-week stay in the Peninsula Paris. Your veranda stares out at the Eiffel Tower. Not to mention the two-carat diamond earrings we gave you on graduation day.” Her mother crooked her head
, trying to see her daughter’s face.
“I know, Mom. And I loved them and the trip. I’m checking my schedule to see when I can go. But an airplane? I saw Colin’s grades. He shouldn’t get an airplane for what he got. Maybe a toy remote one, if any.”
No one paid any attention to Mallory’s pout of sisterly disparagement. They were mumbling back and forth about Paris and the fear of flying.
“That’s so amazing,” Colin muttered underneath his breath. It was as though he hadn’t heard anything other than the words airplane and airstrip in the last ten minutes. He had this kind of dazed look on his face, with glassy eyes and a directionless stare.
“Well, enough about airplanes.” Mr. Prescott stood. “I’m having a boat delivered to the pier right about now.” He checked his watch.
“You don’t say, James?” Mr. Hamilton patted his taut stomach. “I love boats. What kind is it?”
“I’m not sure what it is. I told the man I wanted the best he had at the marina. I’m going to tour you around the island. Show you the golf course they have over on Mission Point. You can tell me if it’s anything like the one you have back home in North Carolina.”
Emily grabbed Colin’s arm as he got up from his chair, and laced hers with it.
Claire waited to see what he’d do. Before she could beam him with a set of her angry eyes, Mr. Prescott yelled for Claire to bring some wine and glasses for the trip. What did she look like, the help? No one had even formally introduced her to this pack of wolves.
“I’ll show you where they are.” Mallory pulled Claire into the kitchen.
“What’s up with you?” she asked, after she gave Claire back her arm when they got in there.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Claire had to hurry and get down to the boat and remind Colin of his mission. Now that he’d gotten the green light for flying the plane, he’d add Claire to the wish list and it was either all or nothing. Simple as that. It’s what they rehearsed in that little cottage on Mission Point. She could still smell his chest and remember how it felt as she ran her fingers over it now when she closed her eyes.
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