Chapter 9
DANI
Dani was setting the table for a late lunch while Lindsay prepared a spectacular tapas spread consisting of garlic prawns, patatas bravas, grilled octopus, clams in white wine, bacon-wrapped dates, manchego with quince paste, bruschetta, and a half-dozen other dishes.
For the kids, she'd made versions shaped like fish and turtles, with little faces made from cherry tomatoes and cucumber slices.
From here, Big Major Cay was a strip of white sand about two hundred meters out, fringed with palms and scrubby vegetation.
The swimming pigs were the main attraction—a colony of feral pigs that waded into the shallows to greet visiting boats, mostly because tourists had been feeding them for years.
The kids had been beside themselves when Dani announced it at breakfast. Even Tyler had taken his earbuds out.
Figures moved near the waterline—the older kids splashing around, pigs wading between them, a couple of adults in beach chairs. It looked peaceful from this distance. Postcard stuff.
Their tender approached and Dani recognized Zoe at the helm.
Grace, the nanny, was in the back, hunched over something in her lap.
As they got closer, Dani realized the something was Bea, and Bea was screaming.
It was the kind of full-bodied, end-of-the-world screaming that only a five-year-old could sustain without passing out.
Zoe cut the engine and drifted the tender alongside the swim platform. Her expression said don't ask, but Dani asked anyway.
"What happened?"
Grace climbed aboard with Bea clamped to her like a barnacle, the child's face buried in her neck. "One of the pigs nudged her foot."
Dani waited for the rest. "That's it?"
"Well, that and her older brother told her the pigs eat children," Grace added. "So when a small pig put his snout against her ankle, she thought it was trying to bite off her foot." She turned to Bea. "But it really wasn't, sweetie. It was just curious."
Bea lifted her head long enough to reply. "No! It was TASTING me!"
"Oh, sweetheart. It really wasn't trying to eat you. Pigs are friendly. It just wanted to say hello." Dani smiled at Bea. She was still wrapped around Grace's neck like a scarf. "How about an ice cream? Would that help?"
Bea's sobbing paused just long enough for her to consider this.
"Grace, is she okay to have ice cream? Sorry, I know she hasn’t even had lunch yet. I should have asked," Dani said.
"Ice cream's fine." Grace peeled Bea off her and lowered her onto the deck.
"I need to head back. The other five are on that beach with the pigs and Tyler's been winding Noah up all morning.
" She glanced toward the tender, where Zoe was waiting with the engine idling.
"Could you keep an eye on her for half an hour? Just until we're back?"
Dani hesitated. She liked kids in theory. In practice, she never quite knew what to do with them. They asked questions she couldn't answer and cried for reasons she couldn't fix and they always seemed vaguely disappointed by her efforts.
"Grace, you know our charter policy says minors need to be supervised by a parent or designated guardian at all times. The crew can't take responsibility for—"
"I know." Grace's face fell. "But Sarah asked me to bring Bea back and also keep an eye on the others, so..." She trailed off and gestured between the yacht and the island, making her point without saying it. "I can't be in two places at the same time, and they don't have their phones on them."
Dani looked at Bea, who had stopped crying and was now standing quietly, sniffing and dripping onto the deck, staring up at her with enormous brown eyes and a trembling lip.
"Okay. Just this once," she said. "But Grace—you need to let the parents know this can't happen again. If that's a difficult conversation, I'm happy to have it for you."
Grace shot her a look of pure gratitude. "Thank you. I'll talk to them. And I won't be long, I promise."
She climbed back into the tender and Zoe pulled away from the platform. Dani watched them go, then looked down at Bea. She was five, soaking wet, and waiting for Dani to do something.
"Right," she said. "Ice cream. Let me get you a robe first and then we'll go and find you something with sprinkles. Does that work?"
Bea nodded. Progress.
Dani fetched one of the guest robes from the pool deck storage. It was adult-sized, which meant Bea disappeared inside it. The hem dragged on the deck and the sleeves hung a good two feet past her hands. She looked like a very small, very sad ghost.
"Can you walk in that?"
Bea took a step and immediately tripped on the fabric. Dani caught her before she went down, hoisted her onto her hip, and carried her down to the galley.
Lindsay looked up from a chopping board. "Bea, what happened?"
"A pig tried to eat her, so she needs ice cream."
"It DID," Bea confirmed.
Lindsay chuckled. "That's outrageous. What flavor ice cream does a person need after a pig attack?"
"Chocolate," Bea said. It was the most decisive she'd been since boarding.
Lindsay opened the freezer and produced a tub. "Chocolate it is. Sprinkles? Sauce? Wafer?"
Bea looked at Dani, then back at Lindsay, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. "Am I allowed all of them?"
"Pig attack victims get the full treatment," Lindsay said. "It's yacht policy."
Dani set Bea in the nook at the galley table while Lindsay built an architectural feat in a bowl—three scoops, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, rainbow sprinkles, two wafers, and a strawberry on top.
She dusted the whole thing with edible glitter, then reached into a drawer and pulled out a small paper umbrella and a sparkly unicorn cake topper.
She stuck both into the top scoop and set it in front of Bea with a wink.
Bea stared at it. For a second Dani thought she was going to cry again. But then she whispered, "That's so pretty." She picked up the spoon and got to work. Lindsay grinned at Dani and mouthed you're welcome.
"Dani?" Bea asked through a mouthful.
"Yes?"
"Do pigs really not eat kids?"
"They really don't."
Bea considered this while licking chocolate sauce off the back of her spoon. "What about big pigs? Like the size of a car?"
"There are no pigs the size of a car."
She looked up at Dani with an expression of deep skepticism, as though Dani was either lying or uninformed. There was chocolate sauce on her chin and sprinkles stuck to both cheeks. "Tyler said there are. And they hide under water."
"Tyler's just messing with you, sweetie."
Dani turned to Lindsay because she might as well get this over with while she was here. "So I had an interesting conversation with the captain last night."
Lindsay's face fell. "God, Dani. I'm so sorry. I feel terrible. We never thought she'd hear us—we were just being idiots, and I know it put you in an awful position. Rei feels bad too. We both do."
"You should feel bad. I had to sit there while she told me, to my face, that the crew thinks we're..." Dani stopped herself, aware that Bea was next to her.
"You know." She sighed as she watched Bea eat.
The robe had slipped off one shoulder, and the unicorn cake topper was clutched in her free hand like a trophy.
She was humming something between bites—quiet, tuneless, completely absorbed.
Must be nice, being five. One bowl of ice cream and everything was forgotten.