Chapter 10
“Knock, knock,” says a voice I haven’t heard for years, and yet, I’d know it anywhere.
I swivel toward the doorway and see Olivia.
She’s framed by the hallway light, barefoot in a white tent dress that flutters around her like gauze.
Her thick braids hang over her shoulders, glossy and black, and her earthy eyes are lit with that same old glint: trouble and joy, wrapped into one.
She looks just as I remember her. Same bouncy cheeks and paper-white smile.
Her body is lean and defined like her mother’s, but her face is soft and kind like her father’s. She shines.
My grin is so sudden and wide my jaw clicks. I close the distance and throw my arms around her. She hugs back hard, the breath whooshing out of me as she squeezes like she’s making sure I’m real.
When she pulls back, she holds me at arm’s length, eyes sparkling. “Look at you,” she says, tugging on her hair. “All tall and skinny. Girl, you look like a damn model.”
I peer at my pale legs and burned forearm and wonder if she’s looking at the same thing I’m looking at.
“Hardly. You look the same though.”
“You mean gorgeous? Stunning?” She twirls, cocks her head back, her dress fanning, and flips her braids dramatically.
I laugh. An old laugh. The kind I’d thought I’d forgotten. “Exactly.”
She grins, her eyes crinkling. “Oh man. It’s so good to see you.”
Something inside me settles. “You too.”
She leans in conspiratorially. “I heard there was a lovely welcome note on the front door for you this evening.”
“Um, yeah.” I raise an eyebrow. “I thought my ex-boyfriend might be in town.”
She snorts. “Sorry about that. Big Island is…interesting.”
“How interesting are we talking?”
“Oh, girl.” She links her arm through mine, and we walk toward the door.
“Let’s just say there’s some…history. I’ll tell you all about it later.
Right now, we need to get our asses out to the patio, or my mom will lose it.
She’s been organizing the crackers and cheese for half an hour to get it just right. ”
I laugh again, shake my head, and follow her out of the room.
We step onto the front patio, where Laelynn has laid out a careful spread—wine, ripe fruit, and a board of cheeses and cured meats.
Some things never change. When we were kids, Laelynn composed lunches that were the envy of the school.
She cut the crusts off the peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.
She built little fruit animals with toothpicks.
Dropped a fresh flower into Olivia’s lunch box.
She spared no detail to make her happy. Or at least her version of happy.
We all sip our wine and chitchat, watching the mist creep up the yard.
I never thought I’d be back at a table with the Parkers, not after all this time.
I absorb Olivia’s presence beside me, and a sense of calm rushes over my body.
One I haven’t felt for years. Still, I can’t help thinking of the note posted on the door. Words pulse in my mind: LEAVE. OR ELSE.
Heathcliff lumbers out to join us, oblivious to the mood, his tail wagging as he settles by my feet. We all smile at his droopy face. I prepare for more slobber.
My mom uses the moment to break the silence while I munch on crostini. “All right, Eric, Laelynn, I can’t take it any longer. You must tell me. What’s the story behind that awful note on your front door?”
Laelynn gestures to Eric. “I’ll let my lovely husband take that question. He’s the one hell-bent on becoming the king of Big Island.”
Olivia looks at me and stifles a laugh.
Eric sighs, loads up meat and cheese onto a cracker, and shoves it in his mouth. He chews twice and then swallows it down, wiping the crumbs on his pants leg. “I prefer the title ‘Prince of Big Island.’”
Laelynn leans toward my mother and me, a hint of bitterness in her voice. “He’s obsessed, you know. Thinks because his family owned most of the island back in the 1800s, it’s his birthright. They even called it Parker Island once.”
“Very impressive,” I say. “I go to a place called Charlotte Island, but that’s just me spacing out in my bathtub. What does that history have to do with the note?”
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” says Eric.
Laelynn lets out a harrumph.
He ignores it. “We have a neighbor named Russ Neuman. He’s a cranky old guy who lives over there, about five hundred yards from us.
Like my family, his family’s been here since the 1800s, and he’s got it into his head that this is his land.
He was trying to buy this property before we did, but we outbid him.
My guess is this is his little ‘welcome to the island’ card.
It’s all bluster. He’s not going to do anything. ”
I have to hand it to Eric. I’m not sure I’d be so glib if my neighbor posted a threat on my door. “Just out of curiosity, how do you know it’s this Neuman guy? Do you guys have a Ring camera or something?”
Eric tilts his head. “Ring camera? No, no, no. We’re rustic here. No cameras for us. Technically, I don’t know it’s him. But who else would it be?”
My mind flashes to Vivek. The Firm. Cov is just a boat ride away.
No, I’m being paranoid.
“Is this the same family you mentioned on the boat?” I ask.
“The family that bought his great-grandfather’s house?” Olivia asks.
Eric swallows another cracker. “Yeah. The same one. They’ve steadily been losing their holdings over the decades, so Russ is the only one remaining. And now that the Parkers have returned, you can see why he’s a tad bitter.”
Laelynn takes a sip of her mocktail. “Of course, I keep telling him there are plenty of lovely lake houses that aren’t on islands populated by crackpots, but he’s obsessed with the idea of owning an entire island.”
Eric’s voice sharpens. “I’m not obsessed, babe. I just think it’s an opportunity.”
My mom strokes her swanlike neck and clinks her nails on her wineglass, weighing the options. “Eric, those aren’t just notes. Those are threats. Don’t you think you should call the police?”
Laelynn puts her hand on my mom’s forearm. “Thank you, Julie. My thoughts exactly.”
He waves her off. “We don’t need to call the police. They have better things to do than investigate stupid pranks. Russ is just trying to scare us. He’s harmless. Besides, just give me a little more time and I’ll buy him out.”
Laelynn’s jaw clenches, and I can tell from her expression that she thinks Russ Neuman is anything but harmless. My mom circulates the fruit plate to distract from the tension.
I grab a handful of grapes and bite one. Heathcliff perks up and opens his mouth, thick slobber dripping down his jowls. I hold one out to him and ask Eric, “Why does he think this is his l—”
“No,” shouts Laelynn as she rips the grape out of my hand, her nails digging into my palm.
“What?” I say, shocked at the attack.
“Don’t you know? Grapes are poisonous to dogs. You could have killed him.”
“I—I’m sorry. I’ve never had a dog. I had no idea.”
She glares at me for a moment, then sits back down, her cheeks aflame.
“I didn’t know that either,” says my mom.
“Don’t worry about it,” says Olivia. “It’s a simple mistake to make. For the record, you can’t feed them chocolate either.”
“I’m so sorry. Noted.”
The conversation continues uneasily for the next thirty minutes.
The Parkers ask me what I’ve been doing.
I ask them what they’ve been doing. All of us avoid topics that matter.
Long pauses filled with the chirps of crickets and the croaks of frogs.
Eventually, my mom announces she needs to head back to her hotel and excuses herself.
I walk her down to the shore to catch her taxi boat.
“Well, that went well,” I say.
She laughs. “Yes, I’m not sure how I feel about your staying here after seeing that note.”
“I’ll be fine,” I say as a reflex, but the image ripples through me. “I’m more worried about Laelynn. Not the warmest welcome I’ve ever had.”
“Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. She just takes time to warm up. I’m sure by the end of this you’ll be fast friends.”
“I don’t know. I did almost kill her dog.”
The taxi boat pulls up to the dock. Water gurgles in the background behind us.
“I’ll admit, that wasn’t your finest hour.” She gives me a kiss as she boards the taxi boat. “You’ll be fine. Just try to remember you’re on vacation.” She sings off-key as the boat pulls away. “You can leave your troubles behind youuuu.”
I smile and wave farewell, feeling mollified.
But then I envision the grim expression on Laelynn’s face when we arrived.
The way Vivek watched me at Cov.
The note posted on the Parkers’ front door.
And something tells me that my troubles lie ahead.