Hurricanes in Paradise (21 page)

“Oh, Max knows me well enough to know. It’s the others who don’t know me that will force his hand. And I can’t have him perpetually looking out for me. The contract the other day could have been a nightmare. No, it’s my fault. I have more self-control than that, and I still chose to act like a beast. Laine didn’t make me do any of that. I just allowed her to get to me. At the end of the day my actions are my responsibility. If I’ve learned anything through this journey of mine, it’s that.”

“You’re an amazing woman, Riley Sinclair.”

She laughed. “I’m a mess.”

“Thank you for sharing your story with me.”

“It’s your turn next. For a friendship to work, we have to know each other’s stories.”

“I’ll look forward to that.”

Riley wiped her mouth and set her napkin down beside her. “Well, since Max hasn’t fired me yet, we’d better get back to work.”

“May our other guests require far less maintenance.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Riley said, and they both raised their glasses one more time.

* * *

Tamyra rushed into Riley’s office, startling her. “Riley, Winnie’s bolted herself in her room and won’t come out.”

Riley skirted around the side of her desk. “Is she feeling okay?”

Tamyra was halfway out the door. “She won’t tell me anything. She asked me to leave her alone and to tell Laine that she wasn’t swimming with dolphins and that she wasn’t coming out of her room until she leaves on Saturday.”

Riley shook her head as she followed Tamyra out the door. “That doesn’t sound like her. Wonder what happ—” She stopped in her tracks as Laine opened the main door.

“Oh, Laine, glad I found you,” Tamyra blurted out. “Winnie won’t come out of her room. I have no idea what’s going on. I came down here to get Riley to help me, but I’m not sure we’ll be joining you for the dolphin experience.”

Laine’s expression was slightly startled. “Oh, okay. Well . . . I was just coming by to talk to Riley . . .”

Riley felt the thud in her gut. “You know, if it can wait, I think I really need to go see what’s wrong with Winnie.”

Laine stood there awkwardly. “Sure, yeah . . . sure. But let me come with you.”

“Well, come on then, you two,” Tamyra said, pushing past them and scurrying down the hall toward the elevators in The Cove’s lobby.

“Gerard, come with me,” Riley said as they swung through the lobby.

“Sure. Everything okay, Miss Riley?” he asked, following behind their sprinting high heels.

Riley pressed the button for the fourteenth flour and the doors closed behind them. “Not sure yet, but we’ll find out.”

Tamyra ran her hands through her black hair. “This is so odd. She was fine when I left her last night. She was excited about being with Laine this afternoon. So I don’t know what in the world happened in less than twenty-four hours. Though there was that brief incident at the pool yesterday.”

The elevator doors parted, and the four of them exited wildly and darted up the hall. “What do you mean by
incident
?” Riley asked.

“A man. Some neighbor from home or something. She freaked out about it.”

They came to Winnie’s door and Riley turned, the other three stopping abruptly as she did. “Now, we’ve got to calm down. Just let me talk and we’ll be fine. Okay?”

They all nodded obediently. She tapped lightly on the door. No answer. She knocked a little harder and leaned her ear to the door. Tamyra scooted her over so she could hear too.

“Winnie, it’s Riley. Tamyra was concerned about you and I came up to check on you.”

They could hear movement at the door. “That’s very nice of you, Riley, but tell Tamyra I’m fine. Just not feeling real well right now. I honestly only want to be alone. And I can see Tamyra’s shadow right there beside you.”

“She was just concerned. If you’re sick, Winnie, maybe we can get something sent up to you. Or I could take you down to the clinic and have the doctor check on you.”

“What I’ve got, a doctor can’t fix.” Her voice was harsh. What Riley was able to hear of it, anyway.

“Miss Winnie, please let me come in and sit with you. I won’t bother you; I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

Riley thought for sure Winnie had her head leaned up against the door. “I’m fine.” Her voice was calmer. “Honestly, girls, I don’t need anything. I’m just an old woman who is used to time alone and needs some of it now.”

“This is ridiculous,” Laine muttered from behind Riley.

Riley turned her head quickly to Laine and raised her right eyebrow. “We don’t need commentary.” She turned back to the door. “Do you promise you’ll let us know if we can bring you something? We want you to have whatever you need.”

“I have everything I need. But thank you.” Riley could have sworn her voice cracked.

Tamyra turned and paced in the hall. “She’s crying. I can tell. She’s in there crying and we have no idea why.”

Laine turned around. “She’s a woman. We cry all the time and people have no idea why. Shoot, half the time
we
have no idea why.”

Riley turned toward all of them. Gerard backed up. “Well, she wants to be alone, so let’s give her some space.”

“Give me that key, Gerard,” Laine said, holding out her hand.

“We’re not going in on her, Laine. She sounds fine, and we’re not intruding into her privacy,” Riley said, the authority in her voice obviously understood by both Gerard and Tamyra.

Laine didn’t budge. She stood there, hand outstretched, pointed straight at Gerard. “Give me the key, Gerard.”

“Don’t you dare, Gerard.”

Riley almost felt sorry for Gerard. He looked like a rat caught in a catfight. He turned slightly toward her, which gave Laine the access she needed to his back pocket and the key. In a second she had swiped it from his shiny white pants and stuck it in the lock of Winnie’s door. No one even realized what she had done until they heard the clicking of the handle.

“We’re coming in, Winnie, whether you want us to or not,” Laine announced as she bounded into the suite.

Winnie was sitting on the edge of the sofa; her head darted toward the door. “I told y’all to leave me alone!” she shouted. “I just wanted some peace.”

Laine walked over to her. “You’re on vacation; who needs peace on vacation? If there’s something so horrible that it has you stowed away in your room, we need to know about it.”

Tamyra walked over and knelt at the edge of the sofa. “Miss Winnie, please tell me what happened.”

Riley gave Gerard’s key back to him and motioned for him to leave the room. She knew he was grateful. Riley stepped into the sitting area, walked over to the sofa, and sat down on its arm. “Winnie, I’m sorry. Ms. Fulton took Gerard’s key and busted in your door.”

Winnie glared at Laine. “Well, she shouldn’t have. Fancy schmancy author or not, a woman deserves her privacy.”

Riley glared at Laine. “You’re right; she shouldn’t have. And we are all now leaving to give you some time to yourself.”

She tugged Tamyra up off the floor and pulled at Laine to follow her. They were walking toward the door when Winnie finally spoke. “Albert found me this morning.”

Riley and Laine exchanged glances.

“The incident,” Tamyra mouthed.

They nodded and stepped back into the sitting area. Apparently Winnie wanted to talk.

“I know my kids planned all this out. They just couldn’t leave well enough alone, and they went and planned Albert a trip here too. And he acted like he didn’t even know I was going to be here. But he knew.” Her eyes squinted, the fire behind them unavoidable. “He knew.

“I told them I’m not ready to date. I’m happy being alone and they sent me all the way out here to Paradise Island to try to hook me up. I’m going to kill them! I tell you there were days when they were little I knew I needed to beat the living daylights out of them, but you can rest assured, when I get home, they’re getting the poundings of a lifetime.”

“What did he say?” Tamyra asked, moving in closer.

Winnie furrowed her brow and stood. “What did he say? He said all the things a little conniver would say. Acted like he didn’t have one iota of an inkling I was even here. He must think I’m dumber than all get-out.”

“Than what?”

“Get-out!”
she hollered at Laine. “
All get-ou
t
! My word, woman, have you never heard a Southerner talk?”

Laine crinkled her nose. Riley tried not to laugh. “Well, is he cute?” Laine blurted out, obviously trying to defuse some of Winnie’s hostility.

“He’s old, like me. And I know what old men want! They want women with round heels.”

“They want what?” Laine asked, the puzzlement on her face incapable of being hidden.

Tamyra furrowed her brow too.

“You girls are ridiculous. They want women with round heels so they can just plop right into the bed whenever they stand up. Old men are crazy that way. You think it’s young men, but I’m telling you it gets worse with age.”

Laine’s laughter started before Winnie had even quit talking.

Tamyra had to cover her mouth.

Riley laughed softly too. “I doubt that is what he is after, Winnie. And you’re not old either. You’re mature. And beautiful. And I’m not surprised if he finds you extremely attractive.”

“Well, he may as well not find me anything. I don’t want anything to do with him. That is why I am staying here until I leave. He had the audacity to ask me out to dinner. Can you believe that? The man is delusional.”

“He might be lonely,” Tamyra said.

“Well, I’m sorry, Miss Tamyra, but I am not the woman to fill up his ‘lonely’ social calendar. I am a married . . .” She stopped herself.

No one spoke. Her words said it all. This wasn’t about Albert. This was about Winnie. About Winnie and Sam.

“How about you go put on that bathing suit of yours,” Laine said, taking Winnie by the arm and walking her toward the bathroom. “And let’s go see what the dolphins are doing this afternoon. It will get your mind off of everything.”

“I don’t want to go,” Winnie protested, her feet still moving.

“It will be good for you, Miss Winnie,” Tamyra assured her.

“Yeah, and we’ll even make Riley go.” Laine flitted a glance back to Riley.

Riley stammered. “Um . . . well, that’s really nice and all . . . but, um, I have to work.”

“I am your work,” Laine responded tersely, not turning back around.

Riley tried to temper her seething. Because it was apparent Laine still hadn’t called Max.

“So it’s settled; go get your bathing suit on and all four of us are going to swim with some dolphins.”

Winnie turned and looked at Tamyra and Riley. “Thank you, girls. . . . I don’t know how I found you, but thank you.” She waddled on into the bathroom.

The three of them plopped down on the foot of the bed onto the tropical coverlet.

“I don’t do dolphins,” Tamyra announced.

“You do now,” Laine informed her as she patted her leg. “You do now.”

* * *

The four of them walked silently to Dolphin Cay. Riley knew it was an incredible experience—she and Gabby had come before—but this wasn’t how she wanted or needed to spend her afternoon. And Laine had said nothing. Not one thing to her. She had just been her pompous self, dictating everyone’s day, and had apparently decided to blackmail Riley silently.

She went into tour-guide mode without thinking. “Dolphin Cay is one of the largest and most progressive facilities for dolphins in the world.”

Winnie lifted her eyebrows.

“Yeah, the lagoon itself is designed over fourteen acres and holds over seven million gallons of salt water.”

Winnie spoke. “Good grief, that’s a pile of water.”

Tamyra piped in. “I heard that sixteen of the dolphins actually survived Hurricane Katrina and were brought here after that.”

“Yes. We call them ‘Katrina dolphins.’ And now they have three calves here too. Those are Gabby’s favorite.” Riley missed her angel girl. Saying her name made her heart ache.

They walked into the wet-suit area, where their guide was waiting for them. Lines of lockers were placed throughout the open cabana. “Are you ladies ready?” a young girl asked, the top of her wet suit hanging at her waist, her black bikini top serving as her cover-up.

Riley noticed Tamyra’s face contort.

Laine rubbed her hands together. “Okay, Miss Winifred, it’s time to get you suited up.”

“Let’s see how you’re going to get all of this in not-so-much of that,” Winnie announced.

“You can pick up a wet suit here.” The guide motioned to two hanging rods that were lined with wet suits of all sizes. “Grab a bottled water from the bar over there. And put your belongings in any of the lockers we have here.”

Riley watched as Tamyra walked hesitantly behind them. “You okay?”

Sweat was beading on her forehead. “Yeah, yeah . . . fine, fine.”

Laine looked at Tamyra. “You sure? Because for a black girl, you have just lightened three shades.”