TWENTY ARI
TWENTY
ARI
Itapped my screen but still no sign of life. I didn’t know why I was surprised. He was so deep in the closet it made sense he wouldn’t stick around for morning hugs and breakfast. Besides, his brother was in the room next door. Of course he’d fled. I’d have done the same in his position.
I just hoped he’d eventually talk to me and that what had happened between us didn’t make him shy away from me forever.
“Problems in paradise?” Mrs. Austen asked, and I turned to glare at my faithful patient.
She must’ve been a glutton for pain. I couldn’t explain why else she’d drop by almost every other day for “necessary” blood tests.
Especially considering she hated needles.
Though by this point, I’d realized the blood tests were just an excuse, and she quickly forgot about those as soon as there was hot, fresh tea to serve.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I told her.
I most certainly didn’t need to feed her with any more gossip. Which was why I picked my phone up, put it in the drawer, and focused on her needs for the day.
“Oh, come on, Dr. Ari. Aren’t we friends? Tell me your troubles. Did you and your husband have a little lover’s quarrel? Was it about the distance?”
I rolled my eyes and smiled at the elderly woman in front of me. “If that will be all, Mrs. Austen, I was gonna pick up some lunch.” I stood up and made it clear I wasn’t messing around.
“Now, now, Dr. Ari. I was just saying. The people of Mayberry Holm care about you. They want to make sure you’re happy here.”
I walked her to the door, and just before I opened it, I said, “I’m perfectly happy doing my job. You don’t need to worry about me. Have a good day.”
Mrs. Austen smirked and grabbed my hand so she could step out of the van, and just as she left, Warren showed up.
He didn’t miss me staring daggers at the back of my patient, and he frowned inquisitively. “What did she say now?”
I shook my head and locked the door behind me. “Nothing. Just being a regular, old busybody.”
He chuckled. “I thought you could handle those. Didn’t you say where you grew up is full of gossips?”
“Yeah. But still,” I answered, and Wyatt appeared in my mind, all needy and vulnerable under me last night.
I could handle busybodies, but not when they could mess up something beautiful. And she already had enough fuel after everything that had happened to destroy Wyatt’s reputation for good.
“Shoot. I forgot my phone.” I returned to the van and grabbed it from the drawer and then went off to get lunch with Warren.
As soon as we sat down in Carson’s Grill, he pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes.
“What’s up? Problems in paradise?” I asked, mimicking Mrs. Austen, but since he hadn’t been there earlier, he didn’t get the joke.
“I don’t know,” he grumbled. “Dare told me Wyatt was seen at the town hall yesterday, after the funeral.”
I choked on nothing but air and blinked as if that would change what he’d just said. “He was what? What was he doing there?”
Warren shrugged. “God knows. But he was seen being dragged out, and that can’t be good.
I sucked in a breath and held it there while I pictured every possible scenario of what he could have done at the mayor’s office. None of them were good. None of them were safe.
Was that why he’d looked so beaten down yesterday? I assumed it was from the funeral but perhaps it was something else too.
I unlocked my phone and started dialing his number when I realized Warren was there, so I just put my phone back down and focused on him.
“Have you spoken to him? Since yesterday?” I asked.
I was hoping he’d just been avoiding me but maybe he was avoiding everyone, and I dreaded to think what for.
Warren shook his head. My heart jumped to my throat just as the waiter arrived with our drinks, and I almost downed my glass of water in one gulp.
“Are you okay?” Warren asked.
“Just thirsty,” I said, out of breath when my glass was empty. “You said you haven’t heard from him? From your brother, I mean?”
“Oh…kay,” Warren muttered with a suspicious glare. “I haven’t, but Autumn said he dropped by the Sanctuary to check on Donovan this morning.”
I breathed a sigh of relief into my empty glass and turned to the waiter to order my food. Until it was served, I found every little meaningless thing to talk about other than the elephant in the room. Or the elephant in my head, to be more precise.
When we came out, Warren turned right and I turned left. He stopped as soon as he noticed I wasn’t following him back to the van.
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, I was going to pay Kale a visit. See how he’s hanging on,” I said.
Warren smirked, and before he even said anything, I rolled my eyes.
“Ooh, you’re visiting Kale, are you? I wonder why.”
“Definitely not for whatever reason you’ve got in your filthy mind,” I answered and waved at my friend. “See you in an hour. Try to keep the crowds at bay.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t kill anyone while we wait for you.”
I didn’t respond. I threw the keys at him and continued my walk down Main Street, then turned right a couple streets down, and at the end of the road, I found Crown Resort, a large mansion that boasted over three floors of hotel rooms, a large patio with a swimming pool, and a spa.
After inquiring at reception about Kale’s room and being given the okay, I climbed the stairs to the second floor and located his room. He answered the door almost immediately.
“Hi, Ari, was it?” he said.
I offered him my hand, and he let me inside. “That’s correct. You’ve got a good memory,” I said.
The room was quietly luxurious, like old money, and I wondered if that was also Kale’s status.
“What can I do for you?” he asked and offered me a seat at the mini lounge in front of the windows.
“I just stopped by to see how you’re feeling,” I said and sat down. “Funerals can be a little weird. Intense and stressful. I thought today you might be feeling the brunt of it, so I thought I’d check on you.”
Kale sat down opposite me and crossed his legs, smiling. “You’re right about the intense and weird part. Emphasis on the weird,” he said. “So many people came up to me crying their eyes out to tell me how much Uncle Greg meant to them, and I feel…I don’t know, guilty.”
“Guilty, why?” I asked.
“Because. I wasn’t crying like them. I wasn’t mourning like them. I barely knew the man. I hadn’t seen him in so long, since I was a kid. And then I feel guilty for that. That I never returned to check on him. I…I don’t know. Maybe I’m an ass.”
“You’re not an ass,” I said and leaned forward, reaching for his hand, and to my surprise, he offered it to me.
“I’m not gonna pretend like I know your life or your situation, but just because you didn’t know him so well in your adult life, or because you can’t cry like others, doesn’t mean you’re not grieving too.
We all grieve differently. And, I mean, you came to the funeral.
That counts for something. You could have ignored it.
So you do care. Don’t let others dictate whether your grief is enough. ”
Kale pursed his lips to the side and squeezed my hand. “Thanks,” he said. “I didn’t know how to put to words how I felt, but I think…I think you’ve described it perfectly.”
Then he pulled away and sat back in the armchair.
“I hate that I won’t ever get a chance to see him again. He’d call me once every few months to see how I was getting on, and I always promised him I’d come as soon as my schedule cleared… It fucking sucks that I focused so much on my career instead of family.”
I took a big breath and let out a long sigh before I spoke.
“Trust me, Kale. Even if you’d done everything in your power, even if you’d visited him every month, even if you’d moved in with him, you’d still find something to regret.
You didn’t tell him you loved him enough, or you didn’t help as much around the house as you should have.
Or you never told him how much he means to you.
It’d be something or the other. Death is…
death isn’t easy. Not for us left behind, anyway. ”
“You seem to know a lot about grief,” he said with a sad expression that almost made me tear up remembering Evan, but I didn’t. I held back. I focused on the here and now.
“Yeah, a thing or two.” I shrugged, and thankfully Kale didn’t push.
“Any advice on what to do with these?” He pointed to the credenza behind me, and I turned to see it was littered with tin-foil-wrapped platters and Tupperware of all sizes.
“Ah, the casserole brigade game is strong in Mayberry Holm, I see. I’m not surprised. Besides, everyone loved your uncle.”
“It’s not just the food. It’s all the offers for a home, a bed. Everyone is being so generous, and I don’t feel like I deserve it. If anything, they seem to deserve it more than me.”
“Hey! Don’t say that. Everyone deserves help. There’s no shame in asking for it, or accepting it. Despite how we’re raised to constantly think about being self-sufficient, we’re social beings and we can’t do everything on our own.”
If only I could drill that into Wyatt’s thick head, maybe he wouldn’t have walked into the town hall yesterday.
“Well, want to give me a hand with those? I’m checking out tomorrow, and there’s about fifty meals in there.”
I laughed out loud and rubbed my belly. “I’m afraid I’ve just had lunch, but thanks for offering.”
He shrugged. “Worth a try. It’d be a shame to throw it in the trash.”
“I’m sure the staff would gladly take it home.”
“Good idea. I’ll try that.”
“I should go. I’ve got patients waiting, I’m sure.” I stood up, and Kale did the same and walked me to his door.
“Thank you for stopping by,” he said, his mouth left open at the end of his sentence as if he wanted to say something more but was hesitating.
“Are you okay?”
He immediately shut his mouth and started chewing his lip. “Yeah, I…I just heard some rumors, but it’s okay. I don’t want to keep you.”
“No, that’s okay. What rumors?” I asked.
“Someone…several someones mentioned Wyatt Goodman. That he was responsible for the fire. But that can’t be right. If he was, they’d have…arrested him. Surely.”
My insides flared in an instant, and I gritted my teeth before I snapped at the wrong person. Kale was an outsider and he didn’t know better. Though if we were being fair, the people of Mayberry Holm were also outsiders when it came to Wilson’s criminal empire.
“Don’t believe everything you hear. There’s a lot going on on this island that people don’t know about, and they just make assumptions. Bad assumptions.”
Kale frowned. “Do you? Know what’s going on?”
I bit my lip and cursed myself. I’d already said more than I should have. Just to be sure, I glanced around to make sure the corridor was empty and then reached for Kale’s hand.
“I wish I could say, but it wouldn’t be wise. Just know…people are wrong about Wyatt. He’s a good guy.”
Kale nodded, though if he believed me was another thing altogether. But I’d done my part. More than my part, in fact.
I just hoped what I said didn’t get Kale in trouble too.