“Right,” Jenny said. She stopped jumping and crossed herself. “But wow. Just wow.”
My mother swept off the plane then, in a green polo shirt with the collar turned up, immaculate khakis, and white loafers. Her face managed to move enough to register shock when she saw us.
“James?” she said. “Audrey?”
I glowered at her, and she stopped dead in her tracks, my father bumping into her from behind. “Watch it, Robert,” she snapped.
“Mother, be polite—we have company,” I said, motioning to the Andersons. “You remember Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, right? Danielle’s parents? And this is Detective Gordon and Detective Fisk, from the Boston Police Department. I believe they’d like to ask you and Dad some questions—downtown.” I smiled as she fought to maintain her icy composure. Just then, the photographers started snapping pictures, their flashes going off.
“And that’s the Tribune. And Paparazzi.” I smiled tightly at her while she regained her composure and perfected her posture for the photographers.
“Mother, a couple of other quick things: Audrey’s mom is playing for my team now. You can still pay her if you want to. I’m sure she won’t object.”
I watched as the detectives headed purposefully toward my parents. The Andersons followed close behind, pale and resigned.
“Oh—and more thing,” I said. “Audrey and I are engaged.”
“Mr. Preston! You’re engaged?” called one of the photographers. “Let me take a shot of the happy couple!”
They published the picture all over the Internet that afternoon. In it, Audrey and I had our arms wrapped around each other, tired smiles on our faces. In the background you could just see my mother, the police converging on her. Her face managed to move enough to look as if she had swallowed a very bitter, very low-class pill.
Epilogue
Five Years Later - Eleuthera
Cole, Jenny and their three kids were waiting for us at the beach. Todd and Evie were just getting their youngest up from a nap; they were coming down to meet us shortly.
“I can’t believe you two are pregnant again,” I said, shaking my head at Cole.
“I told you years ago that I couldn’t keep my hands off her,” Cole said and laughed. “This is what happens.” He motioned to the baby strapped to his chest in a Baby Bjorn.
“Plus, you should talk, bro.” He motioned to my youngest, who was strapped to mine.
“Yeah, but you’re pregnant with your fourth. That just seems exorbitant. Audrey and I have a respectable three.”
“For now,” Cole said. “I can still see that emotional boner on your face. If Audrey wants another one, she’ll get it.”
“That’s probably true,” I said and laughed.
We’d kept our promise and come back to the Bahamas every year. The only part of the promise that was not intact involved Todd and Evie’s children. They had three little boys, and they were indeed screaming and often filthy. They brought home bugs and worms for their mother and made her scream, too. But she loved them, and it let me see another side of Evie—a side that let me know she was sincere in her love for Todd and for their children.
And I loved her and Todd’s screaming, filthy little buggers for that.
Four years ago, Audrey and I had been married in a small ceremony at the Gardner Museum. Todd and Cole had been my attendants; Jenny and Evie had been Audrey’s. Cole and Jenny had married later that same year. In contrast to our intimate wedding, they rented an entire Caribbean island and had hosted a blowout, black-tie affair, complete with fireworks shot out over the water.
“This is huge,” I’d said to Cole at the time, looking around at the celebration.
“Jenny’s sort of used to huge,” Cole had said, deadpan.
At our wedding, Tommy had walked Audrey down the aisle. She’d looked exactly like an angel, in a long lace dress.
My eyes had filled with tears the moment I saw her. Audrey’s mother had tears in her eyes, too—most likely for a different reason. She was probably counting all the dollars Audrey was marrying into, relieved that she didn’t have to sweat the annual increases to the Massachusetts cigarette tax.
My mother was crying, too. Probably because she was worried about the dilution of her bloodline, as well as the fact that I was marrying the woman who’d brought her house of cards tumbling down.
I thought of it as poetic justice.