The worst outcome would be if Russ did answer the door and he had a woman in there.

Irene.

Someone other than Irene.

I knew it was naive, but for some reason, I didn’t think Russ would take Irene or another woman to our room.

I stepped up and knocked.

Nothing. No rustle, no voices, no footsteps.

I knocked again, louder—and then I turned to look at the boat. Bluebeard. I could swim out to the boat, climb up the ladder at the back, ask for Todd Croft. I laughed. I was losing my mind.

The door to 718 opened.

It was Russ standing before me, blinking, befuddled.

“Rosie?” he said.

“Hi.”

“You’re real? I’m not dreaming?”

“My mother died,” I said. “Today was her service.”

“Oh, Rosie,” he said. “I’m so, so sorry.” His voice was thick with sleep.

I peeked behind him. The room was dark, the bed empty. “Can I come in?”

“Yes,” Russ said. His eyes filled and I could see my own emotions reflected back at me. For eight years I’d told myself that staying away was for the best, that denying what we’d shared was for the best, that sacrificing this man was for the best.

I had lived with agony, with sadness, with longing.

I had been such a fool.

I stepped inside.

Part Four

Christmas Cove

Irene

Lydia sends Irene a text asking how things are going.

Irene replies: As well as can be expected.

This is a flat-out lie.

Things are going far better than could have been expected. It’s unsettling, almost, how well Irene is adjusting to life in the islands.

To start with, she loves her job on the Mississippi. She loves being out on the water; she loves the clients; she gets a rush every single time someone gets a bite. She has mastered stringing the outrigger and using the gaff. Huck has promised to teach her how to read the GPS and drive the boat. Irene bragged about her ability to fillet a fish, though Huck isn’t ready to relinquish that duty yet. Still, Irene tried to buy a proper fillet knife on Amazon but her credit card was declined and a call to Ed Sorley confirmed that now that Russ was “officially dead,” her account at Federal Republic would be frozen until they sorted out his estate. Her account at First Iowa S & L in her own name is still active, but it has less than three thousand dollars in it. Just as Irene was about to fret, she received an e-mail from Mavis Key asking where Irene would like her final check and year-end bonus sent.

Year-end bonus? Irene thought. They never received bonuses at the magazine.

“It’s a gift from Joseph Feeney,” Mavis said. “As a thank-you for all your years of hard work. You built Heartland Home and Style from the ground up.”

Irene asked Mavis to send the check to St. John. It was twelve thousand dollars! Irene still had seventy-two hundred of the eight thousand in cash she’d brought from Iowa City, plus a check from Huck on her dresser. She decided to open an account at FirstBank next to Starfish Market—with the Lovers Lane address printed on her checks.

“I’m becoming a local,” she told Huck.

“Can’t be a local if you don’t show your face around town,” Huck said. “Come to dinner with me tonight at Extra Virgin.”

Irene declined. She wasn’t ready.

 

Against all odds, Irene loves the villa. She has locked the door to the master suite where Russ slept with Rosie, even though it’s the best-appointed room with the most dramatic views. Frankly, Irene would like to lop it right off the house, though this isn’t an opinion she shares with the boys.

The boys—Cash, Baker, and Floyd—have all chosen bedrooms and Irene is comfortable at the opposite end of the hall, next to Maia’s room.

She thinks about redecorating the entire house. The décor now is functional but uninspired. It needs brighter colors, some original and surprising elements; it needs personality. Once Russ’s estate is settled and she has access to some funds, she plans on turning the house into a tasteful, tropical dream home.

Maybe when it’s done she’ll pitch it to Mavis Key for the magazine’s Escapes feature. Irene Steele, editor emeritus of Heartland Home and Style, opens up about redecorating the St. John villa that her late husband, Russell, shared with his mistress and love child.

Irene also toys with the idea of turning the house into an inn, just as she’d considered with the Iowa City house in the minutes before she found out Russ was dead. What if she “rented” rooms free of charge to women who, like herself, had discovered a husband’s infidelity or who, like her cousin Mitzi Quinn, had lost a husband and were having a challenging time bouncing back. Irene and these women could bond over iced coffee, papaya smoothies, and wine. They could gain strength from one another here in paradise, make it a sort of emotional convalescent home.

Irene loves the idea, though she knows it will never come to pass. She enjoys having the boys here. They have developed an easy routine and the house is big enough that they can all do their own thing without stepping on one another’s toes. Irene is still Mother Alarm Clock; she rises before the sun and makes sure Cash is up in time for his charters. When Baker and Floyd went back to Houston, Irene was sad to see them go, but Baker assured her they’d be back the following week.

Overall, Irene is far happier than she should be. It’s not lost on her that, ultimately, this is because of Huck. He’s a wonderful, kind, supportive boss and he’s becoming a better friend each day. Irene assumes that they share the same emotional space; they’re still in mourning, still dealing daily with the shock of their situation. But because they are also mature adults, they soldier on.

And then on Monday, the beginning of Irene’s second week of work, things fall apart.

It starts with the text that Irene receives Sunday evening about the next day’s charter. It says: 1 adult, 2 children, last name Goshen, New York, NY—D!

Irene texts Huck. What does “D” mean? She wonders if it was just a typo or maybe Destiny’s new sign-off.

Huck texts back: “D” for difficult. She must have been a real humdinger on the phone because Destiny is tough.

Great, Irene thinks. D for difficult.

She starts the day with a positive attitude. The Goshens are from New York City. Possibly, they’re caught up in the rat race that is Manhattan. The father works in finance or advertising, maybe the mother is a fashion editor. Do people in New York have other kinds of jobs? Irene tries to think of characters in movies she’s seen—architect, elite private-school headmaster, museum curator, bohemian artist, editor in chief, publicist, restaurateur, Broadway actress.

Irene gets two coffees and two sausage biscuits from Provisions. Meredith, the owner, has seen her enough times that she now waves. Irene stops there as a show of kindness toward Huck—he makes breakfast for Maia every day but many times forgets to eat himself—and besides, the sausage biscuit is delicious. Irene is starting to gain back some of the weight she lost.

The boat is tied up at the dock before Irene arrives, which has never happened before. Huck is watching her as she approaches. She figures he’s here early because of the difficult clients. He takes the coffee and biscuits from her, then helps her down into the boat.