Brightest (Brighter #2) Page 9

  “Yeah.” He nodded, putting down his napkin. “You’re right. Gonna go use the restroom before we head out. You good?”

  I nodded, watching him walk away. Our server popped up with another bottle of the Pinot Noir we’d been drinking. “Would you like another glass?”

  “Oh, no thanks.” I sighed, leaning back. “I think we’ll just take the check. Thanks.”

  ~

  Early Thursday morning, I squinted at my phone in the dull, grey light. Could this be right? Climbing out of bed, I padded to the bathroom, where Jude was shaving over the sink. “Have you checked the weather today?”

  “Mahnin’ to you, too.”

  Our eyes met in the mirror, and I tiptoed to kiss his cheek. “Sorry, morning.” Wiping a smudge of shaving cream from my lips, I held up my phone. “Did you see this? They’re saying a pretty big system’s forming off the coast of Africa.”

  “All systems form off the coast of Africa.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  He rinsed his razor, shrugging. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. Those last two storms we had were flukes—most of them dissipate. Especially this late in the year.”

  That’s what everyone kept saying, and yet, the storms kept coming. I leaned in the doorway. “Okay.”

  Turning, he came close and took my phone, eyeing the screen. “Still looks small.”

  “Not that small. It’s got time to grow.”

  “You know the Weather Channel loves drama. It’s how they make money, ‘Lina.” I folded my arms, but he tugged them open, staring down at me, eyes as dark as coffee. “You could avoid it altogether…and just come with me now.”

  “Jude…”

  “What? I’m offering a solution.”

  “I was just informing you of the situation,” I said, poking his chest. “Forget it. Jeez.”

  Cocking a half-grin, he dipped down and kissed my neck. I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I still think you should come.”

  “I am coming,” I said. “On Tuesday.”

  “Not soon enough.”

  “You always want me to drop everything and come with you or come to you,” I murmured, pressing my warm cheek to his damp, just-showered hair. “Come on, Jude.”

  He backed up a little, raising his eyebrows in faux-innocence. “I do?”

  “Yes. You do.” I paused. “Sometimes. You know I’d do anything for you...but you gotta let me do my thing, here.”

  A small smile spread over his face. “You saying I’m clingy?”

  I laughed, shoving him. “No!”

  “Alina, Alina.” He pulled me close, wrapping me tight into his embrace. “What’s funny is I always liked going solo. You know? Until you. You have me feelin’ all kind of ways.”

  I smiled all goofy, my face pressed into his t-shirt. He’d changed me, too. “I can relate.”

  Midnight wandered in, pushing his cold, wet nose against my bare leg. I broke away from Jude, bending to scratch the puppy’s ears.

  “Well, if a hurricane does come, you have this mighty protector,” said Jude.

  We shared a look, and then a laugh, because all Midnight did during storms was hide in the bathroom. “Right.”

  By noon, I was headed to the university. I’d skipped my first class to hang with Jude and take him to the airport, but now it was time for work. Bishop was out with a nasty cold, so I spent the morning with Cordelia, whittling the copious amount of data we’d retrieved into graphs and charts.

  “It’s looking good,” she said, as we packed up later. “Bishop said he’d work on the power point from home today, so…we might even be done with this early.”

  I blew my hair from my eyes, sagging in relief. “That would great.” This project was a huge part of our grade, and I’d been stressed out. Feeling like I hadn’t been there enough for Jude didn’t help. “Hey, did you see there might be another tropical storm coming this way?”

  “Another one, right?” she said, wrinkling her brow. “I hope it waits till I get back to St. Thomas, because I am not trying to spend Thanksgiving over here.”

  “Tell me about it—I’ll have a plane to catch, myself.”

  ~

  Jude’s face appeared on my phone, a smile already on his gorgeous face. My heart skipped. We were back to Facetiming across the miles. “Hey, you.”

  “Hey.” I kissed my finger and pressed it to the screen. We’d only been apart for a few days, but it felt like forever. “Whatcha doin’?”

  “Watching TV with Dad.” He chuckled softly, nodding. “Look at you, all cozied up in my bed.”

  “I know.” I grinned from my cozy spot. “You used to call me from here all the time when I was in Miami.”

  “Yup.” He glanced over his shoulder, then walked into another, quieter room. “I should be in there with you.”

  “Yeah, but pretty soon I’ll be there with you.”

  He frowned a bit. “Wish you were already here—I’ve been watching the weather. This thing looks like it might actually hit.”

  Instantly sobered, I sat up. “I know. It’s gotten big, right?”

  The tropical depression we’d been keeping an eye on had turned into a category one hurricane. While it was still too far away to tell, the U.S.V.I sat in a couple of the projected paths.

  “What’re you going to do if it hits?”

  “Bodhi said he’d help me put the hurricane shutters up.”

  “I wish you’d consider coming earlier—I don’t like leaving you to deal with this by yourself, Alina.”

  “Hey, it’s not my first hurricane,” I reminded him. And it wasn’t. My parents, Adam, and I had done this dance plenty of times over the years—this was one situation where Dad had always come through. And besides, my damn project was in two days. I was so close!

  Amelia appeared behind Jude, waving. “Hi, Alina!”

  I slipped out of bed, waving back. “Hi, Amelia! How are you?”

  “I’m great! It’s great having Jude here,” she said, smoothing his hair back.

  He smirked, indulging her. “I think she’s cooked more food for me now than she did when I was growing up.”

  “That is not true,” she said with a laugh, swatting him with a dish towel. “Alina, don’t listen to him.”

  “This is who taught me to cook,” he said, jerking his chin toward her.

  “Well, I can’t wait to come up and get a few lessons of my own,” I said, loving their closeness. It made me miss my mom.

  Midnight wandered over, yelping when he heard Jude’s voice. Amelia cooed over him until Salomen called for her, leaving Jude and I alone again.

  Afterward, I threw a salad together and ate over the kitchen counter. Missing Jude, despite just having talked to him, I visited his Instagram account. He’d posted several pictures since leaving; he and his parents at the house, sipping tea on a veranda surrounded by fall foliage…friends I didn’t know at a local pub…I sighed in the ache of his absence. I left hearts beneath his photos and scrolled through the rest of my feed for a while. Jude wasn’t the only one who’d left for Thanksgiving this year. Nora and Eli had taken the girls to visit the grandparents, and Ivy was in St. John with her a group of friends. Ariel hadn’t been around Larsen’s lately either, so she’d probably gone along.

  Yawning, I put my phone away and loaded the dishwasher. Within a few days, I’d be gone, too.

  I checked the weather app again, chewing my thumbnail as I watched the radar images flicker across the screen. And then, sending up a little prayer, I turned the lights off and went to bed.

  On Monday morning, I awoke to texts from Cordelia, Bishop and our Professor—classes had been canceled due to Hurricane Eleanor. Cursing in disbelief, I navigated to UVI’s website. Sure enough, all classes had been canceled and would resume after Thanksgiving break. It was only the difference of a day, but it had been an important day to me.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered. Twisting around in bed, I turned to stare out the window. The sky was h
azy and blue, and in the distance, the sea gleamed silver. Deceptively peaceful. You’d never know a hurricane churned beyond the horizon.

  Grabbing my phone again, I checked my airline’s site. My flight was scheduled to leave the next day, but by the looks of things that was at risk of being canceled, as well. Tears sprang to my eyes. The thought of missing Thanksgiving with Jude and his parents sucked…not to mention the whole reason I’d stayed behind was no longer a factor.

  I quickly checked flights leaving that day, trying to catch something earlier, but nothing was available. Looks like I wasn’t the only one in a pickle. “Shit!” I cried, flinging my phone across the bed.

  Midnight trotted over, licking my foot. “Hey buddy,” I said, giving him a distracted pat. He was supposed to hang with Caroline and Miles while Jude and I were in Boston, but it looked like we’d be spending the holiday together, after all.

  In the kitchen, I put the news on and started a pot of coffee, letting Midnight out to do his business. Sure enough, Hurricane Eleanor, now a level 2, dominated the local news. Sighing, I texted Jude.

  My flight’s been canceled. Trying to get one today, but it’s not looking good.

  He called a moment later.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey. I’m checking online now. Something might pop up.”

  “I can’t believe this.” The urge to cry washed over me again. Pushing away from the counter, I wandered over to the glass doors. Midnight was chasing a lizard around the patio, oblivious to my angst.

  “It picked up a lot of speed over yesterday,” Jude said. “I’m surprised they’re already grounding flights, though.”

  “Guess they’re trying to avoid a total holiday meltdown,” I said. “A lot of people fly at this time of year.”

  “Yeah, we don’t usually have big storms this late in the year.”

  I glanced back at the TV, where a blonde in a raincoat was reporting live from one of the other islands. “I’m sorry Jude. I…I really thought I’d have time.”

  “Ey, don’t worry about it,” he said, but I knew he was probably as disappointed as I was. “You can’t control the weather, you know?”

  I wiped my face, feeling like shit.

  “I’m going to make a few calls, get back to you.”

  “Okay.” Midnight saw me through the glass and trotted over, his tongue lolling. I slid the door open, for once not caring about the grass he tracked in. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too—oh, hey, Alina!”

  “Yeah?”

  “You talk to Bodhi yet? About the hurricane shutters?”

  “No. I’ll call him now.”

  Shaking off the cloud of self-pity, I gave Bodhi a call. He was out running errands with Jen, but promised they’d be up in a couple of hours to help me batten the hatches.

  “What about Larsen’s?” I asked, shimmying into a pair of cut-offs.

  “Yeah, we’ll be there tonight, closing up.”

  “You need help?” I asked. Several of our key people were off island, and closing the bar was time-consuming on a normal day.

  “That would be good—there’s a lot to be done.” He spoke away from the phone for a moment, to Jen by the sound of it. “We can eat while we’re there, too. Finish up some of that food so it doesn’t go bad.”

  “You guys are welcome to stay at the house with me, by the way,” I offered. Their apartment was questionably close to the water.

  Bodhi chuckled. “You and Jude are just alike, you know that?”

  My heart warmed. “How so?”

  “He always has us come up during hurricanes.”

  I grinned. “Well, you’re welcome to come again.”

  ~

  I wiped sweat from my brow, flopping down at a table upstairs with a cold beer. Midnight collapsed at my feet, big pink tongue lolling. We’d just finished closing Larsen’s, securing the table and chairs in the pub section, and putting the liquor and anything valuable in the back office. This was a minor hurricane, but Larsen’s was right on the water.

  “Better to be safe than sorry,” Bodhi kept saying. He really was Jude’s right-hand man—they’d been texting and calling each other all day.

  Jude and I had been checking in all day, too. Neither of us had been able to find any available flights, not even if he’d wanted to come back here. Not that I’d have let him—the whole purpose of his trip was to spend Thanksgiving with his dad.

  I sent him a picture of the restaurant the way it looked now, with everything put away. When he didn’t respond right away, I flipped over to Instagram, ready to mentally unwind with some mindless scrolling. It was incredible how different things were in the States in comparison to down here. Up there, everyone was preparing for Thanksgiving. Down here, we were preparing for a hurricane.

  And then Thanksgiving, if we were lucky I guess.

  One of Ivy’s recent posts passed by. She’d posted a picture of the resort they were staying in. Frowning, I squinted at the group photo. I’d thought Ariel was with them, but apparently, she wasn’t. Sipping my beer, I clicked over to her Instagram. It was public, and of course, she had thousands of followers.

  Generally, her page was full of perfect bikini shots and selfies, but she looked like she was in the States right now, too. Boston, in fact, where she and Ivy were from…I’d forgotten that. Ariel playing in the fall leaves, Ariel with an older couple I assumed was her parents, Ariel and Jude with a bunch of friends in a bar, toasting something. She’d captioned that one, “Some things never change.” It was from last night.

  Unbe-fucking-lievable. I blinked, staring at it until Bodhi’s girlfriend Jen dropped down beside me, sliding a plate of fish and chips across the table. “Here ya go.”

  “Thanks, Jen,” I murmured, putting my phone down. Jude did say he was going out with a couple of old buddies last night…had he known Ariel was in town?

  “My pleasure,” she said, taking a huge bite of her club sandwich. “Man, I’m starved.”

  “Me too.” I nibbled half-heartedly at a fry, feeling even shittier about being apart from Jude than I had before.

  My phone chirped. It was Caroline. She and Miles were coming up to the house tomorrow, as well.

  We’ll be there in the morning with ice, rum, and dominos.

  Wiping my hands, I pecked out a response. Jen peeked over. “Is that Caroline? Remind her about the mamajuana.”

  Ok. Don’t forget the mamajuana.

  Lol. Ok. See you tmrw.

  “I haven’t had that stuff since…the Full Moon Party I went to when I first got here. Over a year ago,” I said, finally tucking into my fish.

  “Miles and Tommy make a good one,” said Jen. “A staple for all hurricane parties.”

  “I bet.”

  She giggle-snorted. “One time, Jude and Bodhi got so drunk they passed out on the pool table. This was back when the Larsen’s had a pool table, in the TV room.”

  I snickered, listening to her story, but inside, my chest hurt. It was bad enough I had to be apart from Jude until Saturday, missing a major holiday. Now his ex was at his side when I should’ve been, making me feel petty and jealous when I knew it wasn’t even like that. Not for him, anyway—it absolutely was for Ariel, and no one could convince me otherwise.

  It was hard not to feel like I was being cosmically punished for staying on island instead of accompanying Jude. The first time he had really needed me, and I’d insisted on doing things my way. Maybe I was more like dear old Dad than I’d realized.

  Jen touched my hand, bringing me back. “You okay?”

  I shrugged. “Just wishing Jude was here. Or I was with him.”

  Her eyes softened. “Crappy luck, huh? Your first hurricane on St. Croix, and you have to hold down the fort by yourself.”

  “I mean…I’m not really by myself,” I said, chuffing softly. “I have you guys.”

  Jen’s eyes twinkled as she slid a slice of rum cake over to me. “You know what I meant. He’ll be proud of you for ha
ndling your shit.”

  I sighed, taking a bite. “I don’t know. He wanted me to fly up with him last week, but I stayed back for my class. I had a presentation…”

  She nodded. “I heard him talking to Bodhi about it.”

  I rested my face in my hands. “And it got canceled because of this damn hurricane, so I stayed for nothing.”