Wellesley Wives (New England Trilogy) (45 page)

“Oh, I don’t think she’ll go hungry—well, I hope not. I mean, I’d take her in before I’d see that happen, but she knows her house will have to go, and that will be hard. They also have a place in Palm Beach. I’m pretty sure that won’t last, either.” Suddenly Rosie was a million miles away as she thought about her poor mom’s situation and her dad—gone too soon.

Sam squeezed her hand. “Rosie, it will get better.”

She snapped back to reality when she felt his hand. It was nothing, of course—just one friend reassuring another, but still. She pulled her hand back. He seemed to understand.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“No, I’m sorry. You’re being so kind to me, and I’m acting like a spoiled brat.” The truth was, she was terrified of giving him mixed messages. She didn’t want to have sex with him. She just wanted a friend.

He seemed to sense where she was coming from. “You’re not a spoiled brat.” He smiled. “You’re a magnificent woman. A strong woman with your own sense of values, which, for the record, I think are right on. You sound like a pretty terrific daughter and mother, too, so cut yourself a little slack if you and your sister aren’t on the best of terms right now. Maybe your ostrich thing has some merit.” He smiled again. “Just do the ostrich with your sister until it blows over. If I was a betting man, I’d say she and this older guy thing will run its course and she’ll come to her senses. Just you wait and see.”

“Thanks for saying that.”

“No problem. Now, let’s go and find our boat.”

A little while later, Rosie and Sam were among a group of about twenty tourists on an incredible sixty-five foot deluxe Catamaran. It was her first time, and she was amazed how much room there was on board. Almost immediately, the engines started up and the boat made its way out of the marina of Puerto Aventuras.

There were so many pleasure boats of varying sizes around them. Everybody was on vacation, and the atmosphere was terrific. It was hard to remember that it was a chilly mid-February back in Boston while the sun was beating down on them in the Caribbean Sea. As soon as they were clear of the harbor, they let the sails up and out. It was exciting watching the enormous wall of white unfurl and billow as it filled up with wind. Then the momentum changed as the engines were cut and the sails took over. Everything seemed to go quiet.

“Enjoying this?” Sam asked.

“Yes, it’s amazing. Funny, Boston is on the coast, but we’re not boating people. We have friends that have a power boat and they’ve taken us out a few times into Boston Harbor, but sailing is a whole different experience.”

Sam said, “I’m big into sailing. I have a boat in Miami, but I still like this.” He walked across the deck and then looked back to her. “Come and sit on the netting.”

At the front of the boat, instead of having a normal boat deck, there were two large sheets of thick netting through which you could see the water. If you were to drop something, it would be lost forever into the sea, she realized, and double-checked that her wedding ring was snugly on her hand.

Rosie was a little nervous at first, but after watching the others do it, she felt reassured. People put their towels out and lay on them. Rosie and Sam followed. It was very refreshing, too. Almost as refreshing as the cocktails they served as soon as they were clear of the port. The music was cranked up, and the atmosphere was festive.

About forty-five minutes later, they arrived at what the skipper told them were the most magnificent coral reefs along the Mayan Riviera: the Xpu-Ha Reef.

“Wanna snorkel?” Sam asked.

“What? With tanks? I don’t know how.”

He shook his head. “You worry too much. It’s just with foot fins, a snorkel, and a face mask.”

“It’s not the sort of face mask I’m used to,” Rosie said, thinking about her regular facials back at the spa in Boston.

“I have a PADI cert. I’ll take care of you.”

“A what?”

“It’s the Professional Association of Diving Instructors. It just means I know how to dive with tanks, so we should be okay with just a little snorkel. No tanks, I promise. At least not today.”

One of the crew came up to them. “You gonna snorkel?” he asked with a bright smile and a broad Caribbean accent.

Rosie only had to think about it for a moment. “We are,” she said, and then looked anxiously at Sam. “But you won’t leave my side, will you?”

He shook his head. “Not for a second.”

The boat stopped at a point where the water was so clear, the seafloor was visible.

“He tells me the water is only six to twenty-feet deep here. If we stay where it’s shallow, it’ll be no different than being in the swimming pool back at the hotel.”

Sam was trying to reassure her, but she was okay.

“No, this is fine. It’s just so beautiful,” she said, looking into the water.

Without even getting wet, they could appreciate the teeming sea life. It seemed like thousands of tiny fish were swimming around the boat in perfect synchronicity.

They got fixed up with fins and snorkels, and then Sam headed down the steps at the back of the boat. Once in the water, he gestured for Rosie to follow. She was a little clumsy with her fins, but soon she was swimming over to him with her mask on and her snorkel in her mouth. He gave her the okay sign which he’d already explained was an international diving sign for letting the other person know everything was fine. She nodded and tried to talk, but it was impossible with the snorkel in her mouth. That’s when Sam took her by the hand and swam away from the boat. He put his face in the water, and she copied him. She’d played around with snorkels when she was a kid, but it had been a long time ago. Not unlike riding a bike, it came back pretty fast, and she was soon distracted and forgot to be nervous.

The fish were impressive when she’d seen them from up on the catamaran, but they were even more stunning when she was actually in the water with them. There were large canary-yellow fish the size of dinner plates. From the side they looked huge, but when they turned to swim away, Rosie saw how tall and skinny they were. There was also a bizarre-shaped, spiky fish that was black and white like a zebra.

All the while, she held Sam’s reassuring hand and followed his lead. At one point he tugged her hand to get her attention, and she looked up. He was pointing far away, and even though the water was crystal clear, at a distance of fifty feet the sheer volume of water meant she couldn’t see well. She shook her head, but he was insistent. He kept stabbing his index finger to get her to keep watching, and that’s when she saw something big—perhaps as big as she was—swimming toward them. Rosie’s first instinct was to panic. Was it a shark? She squeezed Sam’s hand hard, but his expression gave her the security she needed.

He shook his head and gave her the scuba “okay” sign again. The fish came closer, and that’s when Rosie understood it wasn’t a fish at all. It was a beautiful, graceful, and totally free dolphin. She squealed in delight through her snorkel. The creature whizzed by them with unbelievable speed and circled some other tourists, too. Maybe the dolphins were used to tourists, and they came to visit the catamaran on a regular basis, but for Rosie, it was the highlight of her vacation.

Before they were even back on the boat, she was saying, “Ohmygod, Ohmygod, Sam that was just the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Wasn’t she beautiful? Did you see how fast she was? I had no idea they could move so fast.” She clambered up the steps as she babbled with excitement.

“What a truly un-be-lieve-able experience! Thank you, Sam. Thank you for taking me out here today. So much better than sitting in the complex and reading.”

He laughed. “If you liked that, you might like to try the tanks sometime.”

“You know, I really think I’d like to investigate that possibility,” she said brightly.

After their dive, the crew presented them with more cocktails and a perfect lunch of steak or fresh fish. Rosie didn’t have the heart to eat fish, having just met some face-to-face, so she stuck to the side salad, but Sam had no such qualms. He dug into an enormous plate of fresh lobster as they sailed along the beautiful coast of the Mayan Riviera.

By the time they got back to their hotel, they were both tired but very happy.

“I really can’t thank you enough, Sam,” Rosie said for the umpteenth time.

~
*~

When she met Marcus later that afternoon, he commented on her mood and even deeper tan.

“Hey, babe, you look really great. Seems like the Mexican air suits you. I’m guessing you had a good day?’

“The best.” She had every intention of telling him what she did. She just wasn’t going to mention Sam. It would be easy to say that she went into town to explore a little but got sidetracked and ended up on a catamaran. That was all pretty close to the truth, but Marcus didn’t give her the opportunity.

“Shhh.” He kissed her on the mouth. “No details. It’s enough for me to know you’re ‘getting into the swing of things,’ as they say around here.” He smiled. “I just want to know when you’re going to try out the playroom,” he said, teasing her again. “That’s where all the sharks are.”

“Ah,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “But, you see, I think I’m more of a dolphin girl myself.”

“Okay,” he said, and let the matter drop.

Chapter 35 

Lily’s Lunch

“No, I will not let this matter drop.” Emily refilled her and Lily’s wine glasses. They were supposed to go out together for a girls’ night, but Lily explained that she’d acquired a live-in-niece, and the farthest she was going was to her kitchen.

    Now that Natasha had finally gone to bed, Emily wanted to hear everything.

“So, he moved out of here and back into his old apartment that he shared with his wife?” she asked.

“Yep, that’s it in a nutshell. Sandra’s not there and I think she’d be furious if she knew, but I’m not telling her, and I doubt he has, either. I don’t think they’re talking much.” Lily was miserable. “I don’t know who he’s talking to these days. He seems to be angry with everybody and everything.”

“Watching Cap & Jet fail couldn’t have been easy. Did you see the article on it in
The Sunday Globe
a few weeks back?” Emily asked tentatively.

“No. He never mentioned it. Was it bad?”

“Pretty much. It said the business was more like ‘Cap in Hand,’ as in begging for money. Sorry.”

Lily shrugged. “There’s not much any of us can do about it now.”

“Where did the name ‘Cap & Jet’ come from anyway? I always assumed it had something to do with the aviation industry.”

Lily laughed. “They liked that idea in the beginning. They passed themselves off as big shots even when they were only starting out. I’ve heard the story loads of times. When they were going into business together, they couldn’t come up with a name. It was going to be something simple like ‘Peter and Jack Industries’ or ‘Jack and Peter Industries.’ But they were so darn competitive, they couldn’t even agree on whose name should come first, so they came up with the idea of an anagram.”

“What?”

Lily got a pen and paper and began writing. “Take the first three letters from each of their names P,E,T, J,A,C and then add the A,N,D into the mix, and you come up with Cap & Jet.”

“How clever.” Emily laughed.

“Mmhm, and their logo was a cartoon of a little smiling airplane with a flat cap on its head. I still remember it well. Of course, they let go of the old logo when it became outdated and the company grew. Then they came up with something more abstract and abbreviated it to C&J. But that’s how the name came about.”

“I doubt many people know that.”

“I doubt many people know most things. God, I miss Dad,” Lily said. She put her wine down on the floor and curled up in a ball on the sofa.

“You have a lot to deal with, Lily.” Emily stroked her hair. “I know it’s hard, what with running after Nat all day, but have you had a chance to think about your, uh, discussion with Jack?”

“Discussion? Is that what you’d call it?”

“Okay then, argument.”

“I think ‘full-scale war’ might be closer to the mark,” Lily said. “I mean, he’s moved out and told me to make up my mind. That it’s him or kids.” She picked up her glass again.

“Well, that’s the part I was subtly trying to get to. Have you thought about that?”

Lily shrugged. “I guess that’s all I’m thinking about. We really should have discussed this months ago, at the early stage of our relationship. I knew he and Sandra didn’t have kids, but I assumed it was her choice. I mean, she’s kind of a gym bunny and, of course, she’s old.”

“How old is she?”

“Same as Mom, I think. Maybe a bit younger, so heading toward fifty. I mean, come on, of course she’s not going to have kids, but what about me? If I want kids, it’s going to be in the next six or seven years. I was kind of thinking I’d like two.”

Emily continued stroking Lily’s hair. “So, you do want kids?”

Lily pulled her head away, but she really wanted to pull away from the question. “Oh gawd, Em. What do I know? We only moved in together a few months ago. There was bound to be a few adjustments. I mean, there always is, isn’t there?” She needed advice, but Emily was looking blankly at her. “All relationships go through ups and downs. What about you and Richard? You went through it. We’re supposed to work through these things together, maybe get counseling.”

Emily slapped her forehead. “Counseling? That’s for couples who are together a long time and need to get things straightened out. But you? You should still be in the blissful honeymoon phase. You just started living together. In fact, you’re not even living together anymore. He’s moved out, remember?”

“What are you saying?” Lily was nervous.

Emily put her glass down and stood. Then she put her hands on her hips and stared at Lily. “I’m saying,
run
. Run as fast as you can. You’ve never been the best judge of men, but you really excelled this time. Jack Hoffman is so
not
the man for you. He is a bitter, selfish, twisted old man, and he will always try to dominate you and boss you around.”