Wait for the Rain (25 page)

“Will I be able to play in my tournament next weekend?” KC asked.

“I don’t think they mentioned soccer,” Daphne said with a smile.

“Did they mention that KC is insane?” Skylar said.

Daphne laughed, and both she and Skylar looked at KC, expecting a witty comeback, but she didn’t make one.

“Are you feeling okay?” Daphne asked her.

“I’
m . . .
having a little trouble breathing,” KC said, her face now a bit pale.

Daphne put a hand on KC’s shoulder. “Okay, they definitely mentioned that in the documentary. It probably means you’re having an allergic reaction to the sting, so we’ll need to get you to the hospital. But I don’t want you to worry, because you’re going to be fine, okay? You’re going to be fine.” She looked up at Skylar, who was still standing a couple feet away. “Can you go flag a cab while I work on this a bit more?”

“We have a car we can use, it’s in our garage,” Skylar said. “I’ll go get it, will meet you right there, okay?” She pointed to the street behind the sand dune near Clay and Doug’s place, then turned and ran toward the beach house.

Once Skylar was gone, Daphne turned back toward KC. “This is nothing to be concerned about, okay? I know I’m not a doctor, but I totally remember that documentary.”

KC smiled, but she looked a bit frightened now. “I thought I was only allergic to beets,” she said in a near whisper.

Daphne put her hand on KC’s arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Do you trust me?”

KC nodded her head. “I trust you. And yes, I realize that we just quoted Leo and Kate in
Titanic
.”

“Skylar, seriously, will you stop tailgating those poor people? You’re going to kill us all, assuming this stupid jellyfish venom doesn’t do me in first,” KC called from the backseat. “Damn this hurts,” she added.

“You’re hardly dying if you still have the energy to mock me,” Skylar said.

“Worst. Driver. Ever,” KC groaned.

Daphne turned around from the passenger seat and gave KC a nod of solidarity. “For the record, I’m glad it’s not just me. I’m fearing for my life up here.”

“Did you hear that Skylar? You are the worst driver I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying a lot for someone who has been in a car with teenage boys behind the wheel,” KC said.

Skylar rolled her eyes in the rearview mirror. “I live in New York City, okay? I don’t drive much. Plus, I’m trying to save your life, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“At least keep your eyes on the road, can you please do that?” Daphne looked at Skylar and pressed her palms together in prayer.

“Were you this bad of a driver in college?” KC asked. “I must have blocked it out.”

“Trying to save your life,” Skylar repeated.

“You should have let Daphne drive,” KC said. “The world would be a safer place with you in the passenger seat.”

“There it is!” Skylar pointed to the sign for the hospital, then jerked the car to the right and screeched through the entrance at nearly full speed.

“God help us.” Daphne closed her eyes.

“I heard that,” Skylar said.

“I hope God heard it too,” KC said.

After the nurse took KC inside, Daphne and Skylar settled into the small waiting room, which was nearly empty.

“I hope this means we won’t be here that long,” Skylar said. “A crowded waiting room is never a good sign.”

Daphne pointed at the door leading to the examination area. “Depends on how many doctors are here, or if there’s a pressing emergency ahead of you. I took Emma in once for a broken arm, and we were there for seven hours.”

“I wonder how pressing an allergic reaction to a jellyfish sting is.” Skylar pulled out her phone. “I’m going to look it up.”

Daphne stood up to peruse the magazine choice in a rack hanging on the wall. “Jeez, this is slim pickings. Some of these are older than Emma.”

Skylar didn’t look up from her phone. “I’ll stick with WebMD, thank you very much. Oh, bite me.”

Daphne turned around. “What’s wrong?”

“I missed an important call. They moved up the time, but I didn’t see the e-mail because we were on the catamaran.”

“Is that bad?”

Skylar stood up and reached for her purse. “It’s bad. I need to get back to the house right away. Take the keys, I’ll hop in a cab. I’m sorry about this, but if I want to keep from getting fired, it looks like I’m not going to be able to make your birthday dinner.”

Daphne gestured toward the door through which KC had disappeared. “No worries, I’ve had enough birthday excitement this trip to last me until next year. Plus, something tells me you’re not the only one who’s not going to make dinner.”

Skylar’s eyes followed. “Poor thing. I wonder how long she’ll be down?”

“If it were a normal person, probably a few days or a week. But given that it’s KC, she’ll probably be out running on the beach before you and I are even awake tomorrow morning.”

Daphne rushed toward KC the moment she saw her emerge from the hall with a nurse—and with a noticeable limp. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

KC smiled weakly. “You were totally right. Apparently I’m allergic to jellyfish. Who knew?”

Daphne put a hand on KC’s cheek. “Are you in pain? Can I get you anything?”

“She’s going to be fine,” the nurse said. “Sore and itchy for a few days, but fine.”

“More than anything I was worried about missing the tournament next weekend, but they said I should be able to play. Yeah!” KC half pumped her fist, then looked around the waiting room. “Where’s Skylar?”

Daphne held up the keys. “Something came up at work, so she went back to the house to make a call. The good news is she took a cab, so she won’t be driving us home.”

“Oh thank heavens,” KC said. “I can’t take any more Formula One action today.”

Daphne pointed to KC’s leg. “So Skylar’s most likely out for tonight, and you should probably rest that thing. I’m thinking we cancel dinner, get some takeout, and go home and relax.”

“For your birthday? Are you sure?” KC asked.

“Trust me, I’m sure. After all this activity, chilling on the couch for an evening sounds glorious.”

“What about meeting up with Clay?”

“That wasn’t set in stone, was it? I think a night in with friends is just what the doctor ordered for both of us. And to be honest, I can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday.”

Chapter Eleven

After a quiet evening at the beach house, Daphne awoke early the next morning feeling rested, refreshe
d . . .
and
happy
. She looked up at the ceiling and smiled.
I’m happy.
For a few moments she stared at the wooden fan spinning above her, marveling at how silent it was. Fred the gecko was perched on the ceiling again, but not in his usual spot. This time he was closer to the sliding glass doors leading to the deck.

“Hi, little guy. You mixing things up today? It’s good to mix things up once in a while.”
Just not every night
. While it would have been fun to see Clay again, she’d enjoyed the uneventful time in with her friends.

She tossed back the duvet cover and wiggled her feet into a pair of slippers, then walked over to the dresser to check her phone for a message from Emma. Not expecting one, she was delighted to see her daughter’s name on the display.

Hi Mom, reception is really bad here so just got your last text. I’m having a great time! Hope your birthday was fun. See you in a couple days.

She typed a quick reply, then set the phone down and smiled, joyful that her daughter was having so much fun. Joyful that
she
was having so much fun. She couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was, but something about today fel
t . . .
new
.
She
felt new. Was it because she was forty now? Or because she was no longer so
afraid
of being fort
y . . .
and unattache
d . . .
and without a litany of bylines to her name, much less a Pulitzer?

Maybe turning the page to a new decade, a new phase of her life, a new
outlook
on her life, was exactly what she needed? A blank slate? A fresh start? Or maybe it was a soothing, healing mixture of all of that, like the rain. She couldn’t put her finger on it exactly, but she didn’t need to.
St. Mirika really is a magical place,
she thought.

When Daphne ambled into the kitchen a few minutes later, Skylar was sitting at the desk in the living room, quietly sipping coffee and staring at her laptop screen, her headset resting around her shoulders.

“Hey, sweets, how’d you sleep?” She pushed her reading glasses on top of her head.

Daphne yawned. “Like a corpse. I haven’t slept that well in years.”

Skylar chuckled. “I’m not surprised. You had quite a night to recover from.”

Daphne reached for a ceramic mug and set it under the coffeemaker. “An accurate statement. So how’s your morning going so far? Any new fires to put out?”

“How did you know? I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to head straight back to the airport the morning after I get home.”

“Do you want to talk about it? Maybe vent a little?”

Skylar gave her a weary smile. “You’re a dear to ask, but trust me, right now I want to do anything but talk about my job. I just want to try and enjoy the time we have left here.”

“Remind me again why we made the trip so short?” Daphne asked.

Skylar gave Daphne a gentle tap on the shoulder on her way to brew a fresh cup of coffee. “How quickly they forget.”

Daphne nodded slowly. “Okay, I’ll take that.”
She’d
been the one reluctant to leave home for longer than a few days—and only if it coincided with Emma’s spring break. At the time it had seemed so important, so pressing, but now it just seeme
d . . .
foolish.

“It would have been harder for me to get away for much longer anyway, so don’t feel bad,” Skylar said. “Hopefully the next trip can be longer.”

I hope so too,
Daphne thought.

Skylar gestured outside. “Should we go sit on the deck?”

Daphne glanced down the hall. “Is KC still sleeping? Or is she out running a marathon?”

“I haven’t seen her, and I’ve been up for about an hour. I bet she’s still down for the count, especially with that sting in her leg. Even the Energizer Bunny needs to take it easy once in a while.”

“Want to walk to Bananarama and get a smoothie after we finish our coffee? We can bring one back for her,” Daphne said.

Skylar held up her mug. “You don’t have to ask me twice.”

It wasn’t even eight o’clock, but the air was already warm and sticky when Daphne and Skylar reached the smoothie hut. And they weren’t the only early birds there. As they waited on a nearby bench for the pleasant owner to slide open the window, Daphne found herself surveying the surrounding tables in search of other familiar faces. After just a few days on St. Mirika, she already felt like a member of a community, however small, however ephemeral.

She also felt a little twinge of sadness at the realization that it would be ending very soon.

“I love how calm it is here at this time of day.” She watched the clear green waves gently roll up against the empty beach. “Going to the bars and stuff has been fun, but I prefer this so much more. It’s just s
o . . .
peaceful.”

Skylar glanced up at the cloudy sky. “It’s going to pour buckets soon, can you feel it?”

Daphne held out her arms and tilted her head back, eyes closed. “I can’t wait. The rain here is so purifying, don’t you think?”

Skylar patted her cheeks. “That reminds me, I think I’m getting a purifying facial at the spa today.”

Daphne opened her eyes. “I know this might sound a little New Agey, but there’s something about the rain on this island, about
everything
on this island, actually, that’s helped me learn to embrace life again. Then again, it could just be that I’ve been hanging around you and KC.”

Skylar laughed. “Whatever works, right? I’m all for anything that gets your juices going. Some of the people at my company are so dead inside, it’s sad.”

“Dead inside how?”

“Hang on a sec.” Skylar stood up. Bananarama was officially open, and she was about to become the first customer of the day. She ordered three smoothies, then turned to Daphne. “Depends on the person, but a lot of them are in bad marriages, yet another reason why I’m not sure I’ll ever go down that route. Some of them are clearly in the wrong profession, but they feel trapped because they have financial obligations and can’t afford to start over. I guess the common thread is that somewhere along the way they got on the wrong path and don’t know how to get off it, and as a result they dry up inside.”

The smiling owner handed Skylar two smoothies, plus one in a bag for KC, and she and Daphne began the walk home. After a few minutes of silence, Daphne took a deep breath and looked at Skylar. “I became one of those people,” she said quietly.

“Was it really that bad with Brian?”

Daphne nodded. “Toward the end, yes. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I jus
t . . .
became numb inside. I think it was some sort of coping mechanism.”

Skylar sipped her smoothie. “Coping mechanism for your marriage? Or for what you gave up for it?”

“For all of it, probably. It helped me, I don’t kno
w . . .
manage
. It sounds so cliché, but it was easier to focus on fixing physical things, like remodeling the kitchen or getting the house painted, than to address what really needed fixin
g . . .
our relationship.” That evasion seemed glaringly obvious to Daphne now, but for years she just hadn’t seen it. Or hadn’t wanted to see it.

Skylar stopped walking and put a hand on Daphne’s shoulder. “You know what I think?”

Daphne waited for her to continue.

“I think you still have a ways to go, but you’ve started to become
Daphne
again on this trip,”

Daphne felt a tear form in the corner of her eye. “Really?”
I think so too.

Skylar squeezed her shoulder. “Without a doubt, and it makes me really happy. You had a one-night stand with a hot guy in his
twenties
, for God’s sake! If that isn’t living, I’m not sure what is.”

Daphne hugged her tight. “Thank you, Skylar,” she whispered.

Skylar hugged her back. “You’ll get there, don’t worry.”

They began walking along the beach in a comfortable silence, both of them staring out at the water. All of a sudden Skylar grabbed Daphne’s arm and cocked her head toward the sand dune.

“Speak of the devil.” They were approaching Clay and Doug’s place. The back deck was empty, a handful of empty beer bottles strewn about. “I wonder how late those guys were out last night?” Daphne said.

“A lot later than we were, that’s for sure.”

“You think they met other women?”

Skylar shrugged as they passed by. “Scott, probably. Clay, possibly. Doug, unlikely. Hey, speaking of women, there’s our favorite one.” She pointed ahead to their own beach house. KC was sitting on the deck, a steaming mug of coffee in one hand.

“Hey, Wonder Woman, how are you feeling today?” Skylar asked as they climbed the steps.

KC grinned. “
Way
better than yesterday, that’s for sure. Leg is still pretty sore, though. I didn’t sleep that well once whatever they gave me at the hospital wore off.”

“You should have taken more painkillers before you went to bed,” Skylar said.

KC held her hands up as if to protect her face. “Those things scare me. I’ve seen too many horror stories about regular people falling under the spell of addiction after a routine injury.”

Skylar rolled her eyes and handed KC the paper bag with the smoothie inside. “
Falling under the spell of addiction?
Who talks like that? Methinks someone’s been watching a little too much TV.”

“Maybe,” KC said as she opened the bag. “But I don’t want to take any chances. Thanks for this, by the way. Yummy.”

Daphne eyed her with suspicion. “Are you taking it easy like the doctor told you to, or did you just run like fifteen miles?”

KC sipped her coffee and smiled. “I promise you both, the only exercise I’ve gotten today is lifting this tasty beverage to my lips. I figured a day or two off won’t kill me.”

Skylar coughed and sat down next to her. “A
day or two
. I have no trouble going a month or two without exercise. Then again, that’s probably why you can still shop in the juniors’ department and I cannot.”

KC pinched Skylar’s side. “I bet you’d have trouble going a month or two without working. You can’t even go an
hour
or two. There are all kinds of addictions, my friend.”

Skylar shrugged. “I tried taking the day off yesterday, and I almost got myself fired.”

“Was it really that bad?” Daphne asked.

Skylar took a drink of her smoothie. “I might be exaggerating just slightly. Okay, more than slightly. I wasn’t in danger of losing my job at that exact moment. However, our company
was
in danger of losing a major account, which for someone in my position is usually the first step on the road to unemployment. So it was pretty serious.”

“But it’s okay now?” KC asked.

Skylar finished her smoothie and gestured inside. “Yes.
However
, unfortunately I do need to make a couple calls before we head to the spa. Can you two be ready to leave by ten?”

“What about the monkey forest?” KC said.

“If we want to see the monkeys, it will have to be on the way back. We’re lucky they could accommodate us at all after we canceled at the last minute yesterday. So does ten o’clock work?”

KC stood up. “It’s perfect. I’m going to call Max and fill him in on my littl
e . . .
incident.”

Daphne pointed to the beach. “I think I’m going to read on the beach for a while.”

“Sounds good to me,” KC said. “I’m kind of liking this quiet evening, early morning thing. I had fun the other night, but my liver can’t take that kind of abuse too often. Hey, what about those cliffs on the other side of the island? Doug said the views are amazing. Maybe we can do that tomorrow?”

“Let’s do it,” Skylar said.

Daphne flinched at the thought of how high the cliffs would be.

“I can’t believe we leave the day after tomorrow,” KC said. “On our next trip let’s stay a little longer, okay?”

“Okay.” Daphne smiled, then exchanged a knowing look with Skylar. Next trip would be longer, and it wouldn’t take ten years to happen. Both of them would make sure of that.