Chapter 4
“What did you find out?” Sookie asked Henry when he joined her at the steps by the elevator.
Henry sat down beside Sookie and whispered, “Vince is miserable. Ava told him they were just two ships passing in the night, and she wanted a relationship that involved more than that. He’s got a lot to think about.”
“This is a real challenge.” Sookie sighed. “We might fail. Seems like he’s married to his job and his family more than he is to Ava. She was strong, but it cost her a lot of tears this afternoon. She loves him, but she can’t continue to live like she has been.”
“I believe in miracles,” Henry said. “After all, y’all decided to let me help, and you’re sitting here talking to me. I haven’t felt this alive since before my Nellie passed away.”
“Helping folks get together does kind of spice up our lives, doesn’t it?” Sookie said with half a smile.
“Yep, kind of…” Henry frowned. “The word is right on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t grab ahold of it.”
“The word or your tongue?” Sookie teased.
“The word, smarty-pants,” he shot back at her. “It’s kind of like putting a good barbecue sauce on ribs.”
“Or that we’re living vicariously through our matchmaking?” Sookie heard the elevator doors open and held her breath for a few seconds. An older couple stepped out and waved to Sookie and Henry as they headed back down the hallway.
“Both,” Henry said with a nod. “We can help others find the thrill of a new romance, even if we’re too damn old for such things, and it adds a little sauce to our dull lives.”
“Speak for yourself,” Sookie declared. “There’s nothing dull about my life.”
“You mean you…” Henry sputtered.
Sookie patted him on the knee. “Honey, a woman never gets too old.”
“Well, in that case…” Henry grinned.
“No!” Sookie threw up both palms. “You win. I’m not interested in a relationship like that at my age. I tease about it, but I’m happy right where I am in life. No commitments. No snoring man beside me at night. No having to wait on a man to…”
“I get what you’re saying, sister, and I agree with you,” Henry said with an even wider grin.
“Okay then, the plan is that we send them to the Belize excursion without us tomorrow. We buy the tickets for them, so they’ll feel like they have to use them, right?” Sookie asked.
Henry covered a yawn with his hand and stood up.
“I’ve already bought one for Vince, and he thinks I’m going with him, but I’m worn out from the excursion today.
And speaking of that, it’s way past my bedtime, so I’m going to my cabin.
And darlin’, I am right glad I don’t have to share my bathroom with you or anyone else. ”
“Right back at you,” Sookie said but made no effort to get up. “We’ll meet right here tomorrow night after we’ve got them tucked into their rooms and figure out the next step.”
“I’ll be here,” Henry said with a nod.
Sookie gave him plenty of time to get to his cabin, and then she hurried down to Minnie and Dotty’s room. She’d rapped on the door, and Minnie opened it immediately and pulled her inside.
“What did you find out?” Dotty asked. “And before you answer, I’m not trusting Henry to pick out the guy for our matchmaking business. That’s my job. Minnie chooses the lady, and you do the planning.”
“Having Henry on the team is an asset for the planning part,” Sookie said. “I found out he just wants us all to be friends. He teases and jokes around, but I got the feeling that he could never be unfaithful to his wife’s memory.”
“Not any more than we can to our husband’s memories.” Minnie nodded. “That said, I don’t intend to share a stateroom with him.”
“Me neither,” Sookie and Dotty agreed at the same time.
***
The next morning, Ava was the last person to step onto the bus that was headed to the forest to see the howler monkeys, and as luck would have it, there was only one seat left—back row to the left, and right beside Vince.
At that point she still had choices. She could get off the bus, go shop for a while, and then spend the rest of the day in her stateroom.
Or she could suck it up and sit beside her husband.
Besides, her new friends would be disappointed if she didn’t use the ticket they had given her for the excursion.
“Are you on or off, ma’am?” The driver asked.
“I’m on. I was just trying to decide where to sit,” she answered.
“Just one seat left, all the way to the back,” he pointed. “I’m leaving in two minutes, so please sit down.”
“Yes, sir,” she said as she took the first step down the narrow aisle.
“Hello,” Vince nodded. “My name is Vince Cargill.”
“Ava.” She wondered what game he was playing.
“You ever been to Belize before?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Have you?”
“No, I’m a bit of a workaholic. This is my first vacation since my honeymoon. I wish I had taken my wife on a cruise back then. I didn’t realize how romantic they could be,” he said with a smile.
“Where is your wife?” Ava asked.
“I’m not real sure, but I know that I’m somewhere between a rock and a hard place,” he answered.
A young guy who had been sitting right behind the driver stood up.
He introduced himself as Rovelle and said he would be their tour guide for that day.
“Belize is a small country, but a very beautiful one,” he said and pointed out spots of interest as they left.
The bus was not air-conditioned, and what few bursts of breeze flowing through the open windows didn’t last long.
By the time they made the stop at the edge of a forest, rivers of sweat rolled down between Ava’s breasts, soaking her bra.
“Little warm, isn’t it?” Vince handed her a snow-white handkerchief with his initials monogrammed in gold thread on the edge.
Even though he was her husband, she didn’t feel like she should cram the hanky down inside the front of her tank top and sop up the moisture. She dabbed her forehead a few times and handed it back to him.
“Thanks,” she said. “I will never take air-conditioning for granted again.”
“Me either.” Vince took the hanky from her and shoved it back into his pocket.
In the process of the transfer, his hand brushed against hers and there was that familiar old flash of electricity between them.
Ava had never felt that sensation before she met Vince and couldn’t imagine having those kinds of tingly vibes with another man.
She had never believed in soulmates, but after the whirlwind romance with Vince, she had changed her mind.
Now, she was afraid she could be on the verge of losing that feeling.
You’ve already lost most of it. His job and his mother stole it one tiny piece at a time, the voice in her head reminded her.
He could have stopped it, she argued. If our marriage meant as much to him as it does to me, he could have protected it with everything he had. You don’t fritter away something precious.
The tour guide told them that they would be walking through the forest for about a quarter of a mile. He warned them to be careful about tree roots and rough patches, and when they got off the bus, he led the way down a narrow path that was barely wide enough for two people to navigate.
The pungent scent of what could only be described as forest reminded Ava of the old pond on her grandparents’ farm.
The smell wasn’t the same, but it brought back memories of times when she was a child and would stay with them—and of her wedding that had been held there just before her grandmother sold the place and moved into a retirement home.
She had felt pretty as she walked down the aisle on her father’s arm.
Not even the expression of disgust on Delores’s face at having an outside wedding not far from a pasture full of cows had ruined her day.
She had tried so hard to be what Delores wanted in a daughter-in-law, as a wife for her son, but slowly, chip by chip, the woman had managed to push her out of Vince’s life.
A few years later, the farm was gone. Her grandmother had died in the retirement home. Both of her parents had passed away. Now, it could very well be possible that her marriage was dying, too. Or maybe it already had, and she was just beating a dead horse.
She could hear the haunting sound of the monkeys before they ever stepped out of the dense forest and into a small clearing.
It reminded her of the soundtrack on a horror film just before something horrible was about to happen.
Was this an omen? Were their screams just a prelude to the death of her marriage?
“The howling can be heard up to three miles away,” Rovelle told them as the tourists started whipping out their phones and cameras to take pictures.
“The big guy up there who is making the most noise is the only alpha male in this family.” He pointed toward the largest monkey in the tree ahead of them.
“That means this is a new family. Later, the male might accept one of the babies you see up there next to the females into the group or possibly even a male looking for a place after he’s gone out on his own from another family. ”
Family.
That word stuck in Ava’s mind. A family like what her grandparents and her parents had had before they were taken away from her.
She wanted to be a mother who made cookies for an after-school snack and helped her child build a science project.
She wanted to grow old with a man and someday sit on a porch and watch her grandchild—or grandchildren, if she was blessed—chase fireflies.
Thirty years of age was the new twenty, and she still had lots of time to make those dreams come true.
She glanced over at Vince, who was taking a picture of the monkeys with his phone.
What kind of father would he make? Would he be one who helped his child build a volcano for a school project, or would he want to send the son or daughter off to boarding school the way his mother had done with him?
The male of the species threw back his head and howled so loudly that a couple of people dropped their phones and covered their ears.
To Ava, it seemed as if the family’s head honcho was simply telling the people staring at his wives and children that they should keep their distance, or he would get aggressive with them.
“Loud, isn’t he?” Vince asked.
“He’s protecting his own. Some males howl and threaten. Others…” She shrugged.
“Others do what?” He locked eyes with her.
“Others seem to not care enough to protect what they have,” she told him.
“If you are talking about me, and I think you probably are, I deserve every bit of it.” Vince locked eyes with hers. “I’m working on something that was sparked by something Henry said. Will you go out to dinner with me tomorrow evening so we can talk, and I mean seriously?”
“We dock tomorrow in Honduras,” she said.
“That’s not an answer,” Vince said. “I won’t be getting off the ship in Honduras. I’ll be working on something I need to talk to you about, but the plans are still not set in stone, and I want to wait until they are.”
“Yes, I will have dinner with you.” For the first time, she felt a bit of hope that things just might work out.
“Pick you up at seven?” he asked.
“I’ll be waiting for you at the elevator doors,” she answered, and wondered what Sookie and the ladies would say when they heard the news. Would they break out a bottle of champagne?