by Lena North
Had his brother just called Charlie a jellyfish?
“So,” Roark went on. “You’ve both seen it. Isn’t it a pretty jelly?”
Lippy caught on and chuckled.
“Yeah,” Joao muttered, trying to hide his grin. “It is.”
“It really is. But will it sting him?” Lippy asked, suddenly not smiling anymore, and Joao knew what he meant.
The first meeting between father and daughter had not gone too well, and Lippy was worried about his brother.
“I don’t think so,” Joao said. “Seems like a soft and squishy little thing that will glide along quite nicely once things cool down.”
“Huh.”
“What are you talking about?” Dupree asked.
Neither of the men had heard him walk over. It wasn’t a stretch to figure out they were talking about Charlie, and he didn’t look happy about it.
“Jellyfish,” Lippy said immediately.
The surprised look on Dupree’s face made the other three laugh, and then a big group of people walked in, so the bar got busy again. Since it had been ridiculous to sit there and find off hand ways to talk about what was going on, Joao decided to push everyone involved to let the cat out of the bag.
As a consequence, Joao talked to Dupree the next day, and then he went to his Aunt and Uncle’s house to talk to Charlie. It didn’t take much to get both father and daughter to agree to spread the news. If they didn’t, someone would eventually notice Charlie, and since Lippy had seen the resemblance immediately, others might too. The story they came up with wasn’t great, but when someone from the mainland investigated, it would be good if it was widely accepted that Charlie had been on the Islands well before her ex had taken his fists to her face.
It didn’t sit well with Joao, but the way they’d let the news out had been via him. He’d merely told Mimi the story over lunch and informed her that the newly reunited father and daughter wanted privacy away from everyone’s curious eyes for a while longer. Then he’d leaned back, hoped that she wouldn’t tell anyone, and started planning other ways to make sure people heard about Charlie.
The first visitor had shown up outside Nicholas and Pauline’s door less than an hour after he dropped Mimi off at the hotel where she worked. Three days had passed since then, and Nicholas told him Dupree had been there for dinner, which apparently had been tense and uncomfortable for everyone. Charlie had kept to herself after that and hadn’t left the house which meant gossip wasn’t dying down and speculation of all kinds were running wild in town. She was by then commonly assumed to be either a midget, have a scar on her face or, as most people labeled it, “Moving through life in the slow lane.”
Joao had stayed away from her. The way her hand had felt in his, and how her eyes had become impossibly clear when she walked into the ocean that first time still haunted him in a way he didn’t want to think about. Someone would have to get her to leave the house, though, and since no one else volunteered, it’d have to be him. Swimming lessons, he decided. Dupree had talked to him about it, so he’d go get her the next day and take her down to the beach for swimming lessons.
Then he stepped out of the car, walked up to the small house Mimi lived in and knocked on the door. They were going out for dinner, something he felt conflicted about because he was still disappointed by how she’d told her girlfriends about Charlie. Mimi might also invite him to sleep at her place that night, and he was conflicted about that too.
“Mimi,” he said when the meal was over, and they lingered over coffee, watching the sunset. “Why did you tell people about Dupree and Charlie?”
“What do you mean?” she asked calmly.
“I told you they wanted privacy, Mimi,” he scolded gently and watched to his horror how her eyes slowly filled up with tears.
“Did that mean I wasn’t allowed to talk about it?” she whispered. “I was just so happy for Dupree, and I thought he was proud of his daughter. I’m so sorry, Joao. I didn’t understand…”
She dabbed at her eyes with the napkin, and Joao felt like an asshole. He hadn’t explicitly told her she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, so perhaps it wasn’t entirely her fault after all. It was a small town, and it thrived on gossip. Something like this would be too good to hold back he supposed.
“It’s okay,” he murmured and patted her hand, which felt ridiculous but at the same time as if it was something she’d want him to do. “I didn’t tell you to keep quiet about it.”
“Thank you, Joao. You’re very nice,” she murmured and smiled a wobbly smile. “When do I get to meet her?” she asked, and when she saw that he was about to protest, she added, “I want to apologize.”
“We’ll see,” he murmured. “Charlie wants to stay away from people a little while longer, but I’m taking her swimming tomorrow. I’ll tell her you’re sorry. Once she feels ready to socialize, I’m sure she’ll be happy to meet you.”
She reared back and pressed her lips together slightly.
“You’re going swimming?”
“Yeah. She doesn’t know how to do it, so I’ll teach her,” Joao said before he understood the look on her face.
She was rarely upset about anything, so he hadn’t recognized her anger for what it was.
“Why can’t someone else do that?”
“Dupree asked me,” he said which was true, and he wondered why it suddenly sounded as if he was making excuses to get out of trouble.
He also wasn’t sure why she was mad. It wasn’t as if they’d go off to swim naked on a secret beach somewhere, for Christ’s sake. They’d be in full view on Silver beach where there usually were quite a lot of people, which was the whole point. If he knew his brother – and he did – word would spread about the activity, and it wasn’t unlikely a few of his cousins would join them too.
“Roark could do it,” Mimi pushed.
“Dupree didn’t ask Roark,” Joao said. “It isn’t a big deal, Mimi. Why are you upset?”
Her face softened immediately, but her eyes were still unhappy when she murmured, “I’m not upset. It’s just that you are so busy, and I thought someone who had more time could do it.”
“I’ll find the time for it,” he murmured and made a small movement with his credit card to their waiter.
Mimi didn’t bring up the swimming lessons again, and she didn’t ask him in for another cup of coffee when he dropped her off. He wasn’t sure what to think about that and didn’t want to examine the faint feeling of relief washing through him either. He’d parked his car and was walking into his home when it occurred to him that he should have asked Mimi if she could get off work for a few hours to join them. He felt like an idiot and decided to talk to Charlie the next morning, and if she were okay with it, he’d send Mimi a text and ask if she wanted to meet them at the beach for lunch.
***
“Oh my God,” Charlie groaned and sat down on the towel. “I am such a loser.”
Joao watched her with a grin and was about to protest when a shadow blocked the sun.
“How’s it going?” Roark asked, threw a towel on the sand and sat down opposite Joao on the other side of Charlie.
“Well enough,” Joao said diplomatically.
“Except something is lacking in me,” Charlie shared. “I think there’s been a mistake. I can’t be related to any of you guys because I sink like a stone.”
“Not like a stone,” Joao protested, trying to hold his laughter back. “More like a sponge.”
He maintained a serious face as Charlie slowly turned to look at him.
“A sponge?”
“It sinks, but it’ll take a while,” he shared.
“You just called me a sponge.”
“I believe I did,” he said.
Then he couldn’t hold laughter back anymore. Roark grinned at him and nudged Charlie with his elbow.
“Hey sponge girl,” he said. “Are you hungry?”
He tilted his head toward the small house where t
hey sold sandwiches and drinks, and Charlie sighed.
“Maybe I should go back to Pauline.”
“Why?” Joao asked.
He had enjoyed himself a lot more than he thought he would. Charlie had been hesitant at first, and he’d started making jokes to put her at ease. Her surprised joy had made him wonder if no one had ever just goofed around with her before, although when he thought about what his friends on the mainland had told him about her background, he realized there probably hadn’t been many who had. The swimming lesson had gone on with a lot of splashing around, and he’d laughed more that morning than he could remember doing in a very long time.
He’d told his deputies he was taking the whole day off, and when they’d recovered from the surprise, they’d told him they wouldn’t bother him unless the entire town were on fire. Charlie had seemed fine with Mimi joining them so he’d texted her and she’d sent a message back which filled his screen with happy expletives, small symbols and several suggestions for where they could go. He’d told her they’d let her know when they were ready, and she’d replied with an equally long message, again telling him how pleased she was to join them. He’d sighed and tucked his phone away, wondering why the heck she’d overreacted that way. Lunch would be a couple of sandwiches on the beach, and it wasn’t a big deal. Roark would join them too, it seemed.
“I’ll go back to the house for lunch. I can come back again later,” Charlie mumbled.
“We’ll have lunch here,” Joao countered.
“No.”
“Why not?” Roark asked curiously. “We’ll get a few sandwiches, sit in the shade over there.”
He pointed toward a cluster of trees and Charlie shook her head.
“Why?” Joao asked again.
A long silence ensued, and finally, she gave in.
“I have almost no money, okay?” she whispered.
Roark started laughing but checked himself when he saw the hurt look on her face.
“Just get a job, Charlie,” he said.
“I can’t just get a job. You know I don’t have my papers, and I can’t end up in any registers.”
“If you think anyone on the Islands will ask Dupree Torres’ daughter for her papers, you’re more than a little delusional,” Roark stated. “And a lot of the places won’t put you in any –”
He stopped talking when Joao cleared his throat. Everyone knew there were off the books jobs available, but as the chief of police, he would have to at least pretend that he was oblivious to this fact.
“Oh,” Charlie said.
“Lunch?” Joao said instead. “I’m buying.”
“If you let me buy you ice cream for dessert,” Charlie said with a grin, turned to Roark and stage-whispered, “And if you tell me about those places, I’ll buy you one too.”
She made air quotes around the word places. Cute.
They were gathering up their things, and Joao had pulled his phone out to let Mimi know they’d get sandwiches if she could get away. As he was about to text her, the phone rang, and he took the call with a scowl.
“Yeah?”
“Sorry to bother you but…”
He turned toward the water and wondered if Mimi hadn’t been right after all when she murmured suggestions he’d look into an alternative career. With a hand on his hip and a scowl on his face, he listened as his deputy described an ongoing incident by the harbor involving two tourists and a local fisherman, and how it was escalating into something which would likely require someone to make an arrest.
“Give me a sec,” he muttered and lowered the phone.
He didn’t turn around immediately and tried to figure out a good way to let Charlie down. He heard them murmuring in the background, and then he felt a hand on his arm.
“Go deal with whatever is up,” Charlie said calmly. “We’ll be here a while if you can get away again. I’m sure Roark can take me home, or else I’ll call Pauline. Or walk.”
“You’ll walk?” he asked, unsure if he heard her right.
“It’s not far, I could use the exercise.”
He looked down on her feet and saw her strawberry red nails and the turquoise pair of flip-flops. She was right, it wasn’t far but he still couldn’t believe she’d offered to walk all the way back to his Uncle Nico’s home in flip-flops.
“It’ll ruin your nail polish,” he murmured absentmindedly.
She promptly started laughing and nudged him with her shoulder.
“Are you insane? It’ll take more than a walk to do that, and besides, Pauline didn’t like the color, so she gave me the bottle. There’s plenty left so I can repaint them this evening, can’t I?”
“Are you sure it’s okay?” Joao asked, feeling a bit stupid.
It wasn’t like this was a date, and he pushed back the small voice in his head asking if he was perhaps acting like an idiot because he wanted it to be one.
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked. “Aren’t you the chief of police?” When he just stared at her, she added, “We’ll be fine. Roark won’t let me drown.”
“Huh,” he grunted.
“Go and do your job, Joao. We’ll have a second lunch if you come back. Or lunch some other time? Next swimming lesson, I’ll bring sandwiches. We’ll have breakfast.”
Breakfast? Oh, wow. Images which were entirely inappropriate popped into his mind before he could stop them, and he knew in an instant that, yeah. He could do breakfast with her. This was not good. Not good at all.
“Get out of here, I’m hungry,” Roark said. It was clear from the look on his face that he understood why Joao was both surprised and conflicted, and he added quietly, “I think you should think about what you’re thinking about right now.”
Their eyes locked and Joao didn’t know what to say.
“That’s a lot of thinking,” Charlie quipped, and added with a sweet smile, “Might make his brain explode.”
Before he could stop himself, Joao leaned in close.
“Brat,” he murmured. “Stay out of trouble.”
“Always do,” she said, and he wasn’t sure, but it sounded slightly breathy to him.
He nodded at his brother and went back into town, calling Mimi from the car to let her know lunch was canceled. She was disappointed, so he offered to call one of the restaurants to have them deliver something for her, which she refused. He was still on the phone as he walked into the station, listening to her using many words to let him know she’d looked forward to meeting Charlie.
“No one has met her, you know, and people are curious. I really wanted to have lunch with her,” Mimi murmured. “Perhaps tomorrow?”
An ugly suspicion crept into his mind, but he pushed it back. Surely Mimi hadn’t wanted to meet Charlie so she could gossip about her with her friends later?
“I don’t know,” he stalled. “I’m not sure when I’ll see her again.”
“What’s she like?”
“Mimi, honey, I really have to go.”
“Of course, I’m sorry. I was just curious. She showed up from nowhere and –”
“Mimi, I have a room full of unhappy people in front of me, and I really need to deal with them right now.”
“Oh.”
Oh? Really? He wondered if he’d not been transparent with her on what he did for a living.
“I’ll call you,” he said, a bit harsher than he’d intended, so his goodbye was softer to make up for it.
Then he looked around the room, and he hadn’t exaggerated. It was full of people, and not one of them looked happy. The afternoon disappeared while he dealt with two drunk tourists and a furious old man whose truck full of fish had been run into. Traffic in Croxier was insane, so this was in no way unusual, and they usually managed to resolve fender benders to everyone’s satisfaction, but the two visitors were wealthy and didn’t hesitate to share that they worked in government positions on the mainland. Apparently, they thought this would justify their behavior, s
o it took hours to make them understand that they’d have to pay for the damages and one of them would be charged with drunk driving. It also required a phone call to their boss, who yelled at the two men for fifteen minutes straight. When they finally left, sobered up and pissed off, he sighed and leaned back in his chair thinking that his job truly sucked lemons sometimes.
“Deep thoughts?” Tina asked from the door.
“Shitty afternoon.”
“Old man Cabal had a worse day. Or could have had.”
“Yeah,” Joao sighed and took the cup of coffee she handed him. “Shitheads.”
“The check he already got from them will ensure the truck gets repaired and his granddaughter still gets braces, Joao. Pretty well done for a shitty afternoon.”
Her brown eyes were calm, and he sighed with satisfaction. Yeah, he thought. Pretty well done.
“Wanna go for a drink at the bar?”
He looked at his watch. It was too late to go back to the beach and relaxing with Tina for a few hours was tempting, but it would be the wrong thing to do. He should go home and think about shit instead.
“Thanks, but I’ll pass today. Need to sort out some shit in my head.”
“Overdue,” she murmured, and added quickly, “Not my business, I know. I’ll go home to my girl and have a beer there instead. Stop by later if you want company.”
“Might,” he said.
Then he went home, grabbed a beer from the fridge and walked down to sit on the beach and stare at the unopened can. It took him precisely thirty minutes to figure out what to do, and he felt like an idiot because he should have done it a lot sooner. Somehow, he’d been caught up in the pleasant state of being a part of a couple and had forgotten what it was supposed to be like. Nicky was right, he wasn’t even thirty. He could be single. He could have patience, couldn’t he?
Mimi looked happy when she opened her door and told him she’d just started on dinner.
“I’ll throw in some more prawns, and there’ll be enough for you too. We’ll open a bottle of wine, sit on the patio.”
His brows went up when he realized she thought he was there because he’d missed her and wanted to see her. They always made plans, and he’d never showed up at her door unannounced.
