So now he’s at episode 4: His brother moves in. Baker has to go pick Cash up at Tilda’s villa in Peter Bay. The place is like something plucked off the cover of Architectural Digest. During his downtime in the Westin time-share office, Baker has been researching the St. John real estate market. Peter Bay fetches top dollar. It’s a private community on the north shore with a prime location between Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay. While Tilda’s villa doesn’t have as many bedrooms as their villa in Little Cinnamon did, it has nearly exactly the same amount of square footage. Cash gives Baker a tour of the place. The three wings are connected by covered walkways bordered on either side by lush landscaping—hibiscus, frangipani, birds-of-paradise. The T-shaped pool is unique. The kitchen has a curved island topped with white marble and three light blue suede bar stools that look like egg cups. Baker sits in one and swivels. Cash will be getting a serious downgrade at the Happy Hibiscus.

“Explain to me again why you’re leaving,” Baker says as they pull out of the extremely steep driveway. The views are ridiculous! From the top of the driveway, Baker can see the entirety of Tortola and beyond. Beyond!

“Tilda went on a work trip with someone else,” Cash says. “Her parents are building an eco-resort over on Lovango Cay so they sent her on a three-stop tour of the fanciest, most expensive resorts in the Caribbean.” He stares out the window. “Today, for example, she’s on an island resort called Eden where management decides what guests are allowed to stay there.”

“Who’d she go with?” Baker asks. “A guy?”

“This dude named Duncan Huntley,” Cash says. “He bought Lovango Cay. Bought the entire island. And this guy is, like, our age.”

Duncan Huntley? Baker opens his mouth to say, I know that guy. He gave Floyd and me a ride on his boat from the airport. But for some reason, Baker stops himself. “So he and Tilda are a thing, then? Or they just went on this trip as business partners?”

“They went as business partners,” Cash says. “But Tilda didn’t call me at all for the first four days, which I found fishy because she cried when she left and promised to be true, blah-blah-blah. When I asked her what she thought about Dunk, she said, ‘He’s too intense.’”

Intense is a good choice of word, Baker thinks.

“He fasts,” Cash says. “Which is apparently a lifestyle we’ve been missing out on. Starving yourself brings better focus and productivity.”

“I’ll never know,” Baker says, thinking about the scones from Provisions and the container of Red Velvet Cake ice cream he has hidden in the freezer.

“So, anyway, after four full days away, she hits me up at two thirty in the morning and all she can talk about is Dunk this and Dunk that. Dunk adjusted her chaise by the pool, she and Dunk took a picnic to a waterfall, Dunk arranged for a private seaplane, and—get this—she and Dunk had a couples massage at the spa.”

“Couples massage?” Baker says. “I’m sorry, bro. You were right to leave.”

Episode 5: Baker, his brother, his mother, and Floyd all cohabitate in Baker’s villa, which, although blessed with cathedral ceilings, a spacious laundry room, and a picturesque backyard with sapphire pool, has only two bedrooms. Irene and Cash each take a sofa; every morning, Irene folds up their bedding and hides it away in the closet. Irene shares a bathroom with Floyd, and reluctantly, oh so reluctantly, Baker lets Cash share his bathroom, which makes them both feel like they’re teenagers again. Cash spends sixteen thousand dollars of his inheritance from Milly on a silver Dodge pickup with only eight thousand island miles on it. Irene borrows Cash’s truck or Baker’s Jeep, alternating between the two, which would be annoying, except she occasionally drives Floyd to school and picks him up, and she takes over all the grocery shopping. Baker does the cooking; he finally has an appreciative audience—or sort of. Cash gets home from Treasure Island each night so spent and hungry that he ravenously shovels in whatever Baker puts in front of him without even seeming to taste it, and Irene helps herself to doll-size portions, then eats half. She’s losing weight again, just like she did when they first got here, right after they’d received the news of Russ’s death.

Baker shows Irene his secret stash of Red Velvet Cake ice cream—he was hiding it from himself, and now he’s hiding it from Cash—but Irene just shakes her head. “I’m not hungry.”

Something happened between Irene and Huck—but what?

One afternoon while Baker is in the Gifft Hill School parking lot waiting for Floyd, he sees Maia and her little friend Joanie emerge. Maia zips right over and offers Baker a fist bump. “Hey, bro.”

“Hey, sis,” Baker says. Joanie is now hanging back, talking to a boy, so Baker seizes the moment. “Do you know what happened between Huck and my mom? Did they have a fight?”

Maia shrugs. “He told me she just wanted to live with you guys. She thought she was imposing.”

“Fair enough,” Baker says. “But why did she quit the boat?”

“Gramps won’t talk about it,” Maia says. “But he refuses to hire another mate. So he’s doing two jobs by himself and he’s never home.” A beat-up RAV4 pulls up. “That’s Joanie’s mom. I have to go, bro.”

That night over dinner, Baker says, “I saw Maia at school. She said Huck refuses to hire another mate.”

Irene freezes with her fork suspended over her plate. They’re having pineapple fried rice with grilled shrimp, and Irene has helped herself to one spoonful of rice and one shrimp. “Well,” she says finally. “That’s his prerogative, I guess.”

“Why don’t you go back, Mom?” Cash says.

“I want to do my own thing,” Irene says. “I bought the study materials for the captain’s license, and I’ve been working my way through. I’ll go to St. Thomas to take my test, and while I’m over there, I’m looking at a boat. I just need a marketing plan, advertising, some way to get my new venture out there.”

“What’s the name going to be?” Cash asks. “Of the boat?”

“Angler Cupcake,” Irene says. Her lips hint at a smile. “That was what your grandfather used to call me.”

Why shouldn’t Irene have her own fishing boat? Baker wonders. Why shouldn’t Angler Cupcake be every bit as successful as the Mississippi? Well, he suspects his mother will have a challenging time attracting male clients with a boat called Angler Cupcake. Which means she’ll be going after a female clientele. Are there enough women who fish for her to sustain a fishing-charter business?

Baker decides to ask his Gifft Hill School–mom friends. They’re not school wives, not yet, but Baker, Swan, Bonny, and Paula are bonding. Whenever Baker drops Floyd off or picks him up, those three are reliably waiting for him.

He broaches the fishing-boat question one afternoon while Floyd plays for a few extra minutes on the jungle gym with Swan’s son Ryder.

“I think she could be very successful,” Paula says. Baker has learned that Paula is a bit of a Suzie Sunshine; she says whatever she thinks will make someone happy, regardless of whether or not she believes it’s true.