Hemingway's Girl (33 page)

“Why did you do that?” asked Gavin. “He’s never lost.”

“I know you’ll win,” she said.

“That was foolish,” he said. “Now you’ll lose your whole summer. Shit, I didn’t need
that added pressure.”

“I’m sorry,” said Mariella. “I just couldn’t take his arrogance.”

“And now those rich people will take all your money.”

“Don’t think that way,” she said.

“Do you know why he’ll win?” said Gavin. “Because now he has to prove something. Because
he hates me and he wants to impress you. You challenged his manhood, and you just
don’t do that to Ernest Hemingway without consequences.”

Mariella pulled a cigarette from the pack Gavin had brought her. She lit it, handed
it to him, and lit another for herself.

“You’re wrong, love,” she said. He shook his head and reached for her hand. She took
it and they stood and walked out to the porch.

Jinny sat on a bench, with Jane leaning up against her side. Jane smoked with one
hand and rubbed Jinny’s leg with the other. Jinny leaned into Jane and whispered something
in her ear that made Jane laugh. She looked as if she would kiss her, but turned toward
Mariella and Gavin when their shadows fell over them.

“Girl,” said Jane.

“Mar-i-el-la,” said Jinny, giggling through the smoke that drifted around her face.

“Mariella,” said Jane. “You have balls. I love that.”

Gavin looked at Mariella and saw that she was taken aback.

“You’re the only woman I’ve ever seen who could scare him,” said Jane. She looked
at Gavin, inhaling deeply. “Kick his ass for me, darling, and for your girl.”

“I’ll do my best,” said Gavin.

“I bet against you, but I want you to win,” she said.

“Mar-i-el-la,” said Jinny again, laughing to herself, and draining the glass.

“Good night,” said Gavin, guiding Mariella away from the women. As they walked down
the stairs, they could hear Jinny saying Mariella’s name in that teasing way.

Gavin and Mariella stepped off the porch and into the sand. They both left their shoes
on the bottom step, and Gavin rolled up the bottom of his pants. He took Mariella’s
hand and they walked to the water.

“What was that all about with Jane and Jinny?” said Mariella.

Gavin just looked at her and smiled.

The moon winked off the crest of the waves, which were often broken by the large fins
of hunting sharks.

“So I guess there’s no nighttime skinny-dipping on the island,” he said.

“Not unless you want to come back missing essential parts,” said Mariella.

He laughed.

“That’s a good sound,” she said. “You don’t laugh out loud much.”

“Not usually much to laugh about,” he said. “But, God, now, aside from getting my
face broken tomorrow, I feel so good to be with you.”

She leaned in closer to his side. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m afraid this weekend
will be gone before we know it.”

“It will,” he said, “but then you’ll come home in a couple of weeks and we’ll be together
again.”

“I miss my sisters,” said Mariella. “And my mom. Have you been to see them while I’ve
been gone?”

“I have.”

“How are they? Mama was never good at letter writing.”

He was quiet for a moment, and Mariella sensed tension. She didn’t know what to make
of that and stopped walking.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I’m not going to lie. It was bad at first.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Lulu had a fever and your mom wanted to call you. Estelle convinced her to look for
me at John’s, and luckily I was there.”

“What did you do?”

“I just calmed your mom down and talked her through the usual procedure. We ended
up calling the doctor, and he helped. Her fever broke in a day.”

Mariella felt guilt rumbling in her belly.

“I shouldn’t have left them,” she said.

“Yes, you should,” he said. “Your mom needs to learn how to be a mom again.”

Mariella was quiet.

“And she’s doing better,” said Gavin. “Keeping it together. Making some positive changes…”
His voice trailed off. Mariella sensed more trouble.

“What is it?”

“I’m going to tell you something that I’m fifty percent convinced you’ll love and
fifty percent convinced you’ll hate,” he said.

“God, what is it?”

“Let me preface this by saying I love it and see only good coming from it.”

“Tell me!”

“I’ve wanted to tell you, but I just didn’t want to put it in a telegram or letter.”

“Gavin, if you don’t tell me right now,
I’ll
break your nose.”

He looked down at her and laughed.

“Okay. I think your mom and John are falling in love.”

Mariella fell silent and looked away from him at the water. She felt uneasy at the
thought of her mother dating. It felt like a betrayal of her father. She didn’t want
to lose her mother just as she’d found her. But then she thought of John, and her
heart filled with love. She wanted him to be happy, she wanted Eva to be happy, and
the girls loved him. John would have someone to take care of him besides Gavin, and
her family wouldn’t need her as much as they did now.

She turned back to Gavin and smiled.

“That night at your house,” she said, “I saw it. When we were leaving. When they hugged.”

Gavin nodded.

“I think that may be the best thing that’s happened to my family in a long time,”
she said.

He reached down and hugged her, lifting her a little off the ground and swinging her
from side to side. He put her down and kissed her softly, first on the lips, then
on the neck. She tipped her
head back and saw the moon high over them and thought she’d never been happier.

“You know what Lulu said when your mom brought the girls to lunch at John’s house?”

“What?” asked Mariella.

“She said your mom and John could get married, and you and I could get married, and
we could switch houses.”

Mariella laughed. “Lulu said that?”

“Yes.”

“And how did everyone respond?”

“I think John and your mom were too busy trying to hide their blushes to speak. I
said it was a swell idea.”

“Gavin Murray, are you asking me to marry you?”

“Not yet,” he said.

Mariella opened her mouth as if in shock and punched his chest.

“Easy! Don’t beat me up before tomorrow,” he said.

“Then why are you teasing me?”

“I just wanted to see your response,” he said. “And I need to make some more money
before I can support you.”

“Don’t be so practical,” she said, leaning in to kiss the hollow at the base of his
neck. “I can’t wait much longer for you.”

He groaned and kissed her hard. “Me neither.”

They walked over to the dock where the
Pilar
was tied and rocking in the water to the rhythm of the waves. Mariella put her hand
on the side of the boat and closed her eyes.

“You miss being out on the water,” said Gavin.

“To my bones,” she said.

“John told me what you want to do,” said Gavin.

Mariella opened her eyes and looked at Gavin, waiting for his thoughts on the charter
boat business.

“I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “It will work.”

When he said it, she suddenly knew it would. For the first
time she could see it. Clearly. It would work. It made her feel too emotional to speak,
so she turned back to the
Pilar
.

He came up behind her, slipped his hands around her waist, and kissed the side of
her neck. She felt every nerve in her body quiver and turned back to him to wrap herself
up in his arms.

“Why don’t you do it with me?” she said.

He laughed deeply in her ear. “Here?”

She gave him a punch in the side and he pretended it hurt.

“I’d love to do it with you, but we’d get splinters,” he said.

She punched him again and pulled away. He pulled her back and kissed her.

“Seriously, I was hoping you’d ask,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to work on the water,
but I thought it was hopeless, with the fishermen in the state they’re in right now.
With your connections to these richies through Hem, even with the state of the economy,
it would work.”

“There’s just one small problem,” she said.

“A boat.”

“I’ve been trying to save since my dad was alive, but rent and taking care of my family
drains us. I only have about thirty bucks. Until you beat Fat Slob tomorrow, that
is.”

He laughed.

“I’ve got a little money saved,” he said. “We’ll keep saving and we’ll do it.”

The sound of drunken voices arguing called their attention to the beach.

“We’d better get back,” she said. “Big day tomorrow.”

He took her hand and walked her back to the hotel. He dropped her off at her room
with another kiss that made it difficult for her to send him away, but she did. She
closed her door and went to the open window. He stuck his head through and kissed
her again, then started down the porch stairs. She watched him walk away, but he ran
back up and kissed her again. She laughed
and he shushed her and she pushed him. He walked back down the stairs, watching her,
and tripping down the bottom steps. She laughed and he put his hand over his heart.
He finally turned and walked down the beach, toward the road that would take him to
his hotel. She watched him until he was lost in the shadows.

Thunder rumbled over the water, and the wind picked up. Mariella rubbed the chill
from her arms and went to bed.

It was cloudy and threatened rain that morning. Mariella woke early, pulled up her
hair, and went to the dining room to help with breakfast. She had settled in fast
with the hotel staff, and could envision herself working there if she didn’t have
so much back in Key West. Mrs. Duncombe, the hotel owner, was very kind and accommodating.
She didn’t seem to find it at all strange that the Hemingways would fly their housekeeper
to Bimini with them and put her to work for the hotel.

“Big fight this morning?” asked the cook, Laney, a large Bahamian with a deep voice.

“Oh, yes,” said Mariella.

“Your beau and Fat Slob?”

Mariella laughed. The staff had been calling Papa that, much to his and everyone’s
amusement, since he had knocked out Knapp.

“Any chance of Beau winning?” asked Laney.

“He’s never lost a fight,” said Mariella, “so the odds are good.”

“But neither has Fat Slob, and he knocked out the piano man.”

“Don’t remind me,” said Mariella.

She helped Laney with the coffee and eggs and sliced a pineapple.

The breakfast crowd arrived early and the room buzzed. Papa came in off the beach
from an early swim, pulling on his Basque
shirt and running his hands through his hair. He winked at Mariella and sat down with
the Dos Passoses. He laughed loudly at something Katy said. He appeared to be in high
spirits.

Mariella was too nervous to eat, so she left to head over to the dock to give Gavin
some encouragement. He was there when she arrived, along with a larger than usual
crew of locals. They were gambling with dice on the end of the pier and laughing raucously.
The air was charged from the weather and the anticipation of the fight.

“Jeez, news travels fast,” said Gavin as he gestured to the crowd.

Mariella rolled her eyes and reached into her pocket. She passed Gavin the rabbit’s
foot.

“For good luck,” she said.

“I didn’t know you were superstitious.”

“I’m not, but Papa gave this to me and told me it was lucky.”

“I don’t believe in luck—good or bad,” said Gavin.

Mariella shrugged. She put it back into her pocket.

“Wait,” he said. “I do remember hearing something about good-luck kisses.”

She smiled and kissed him. Some of the locals began clapping, and Mariella pulled
away as she felt the dock shake. She looked over her shoulder and saw Papa walking
ahead of his entourage. He looked like the happy king this morning. Mariella felt
the confidence drain out of her.

Papa reached out and shook Gavin’s hand. “I’m sorry about last night,” he said.