Destination Wedding ~ A Novel (7 page)

Claire stepped out of the small shower stall and wrapped herself in a large, white towel, then wrapped her hair up in a towel as well. She stood in front the mirror, trying to decide what to do with her hair. It was humid here, bearable but bad for the hair. And it was windy by the ocean. She decided she'd be wearing her hair up a lot while they were on the island.

A buzzing sound came from the other side of the door and it made Claire pause. Was that her phone? She had told everyone she knew not to call her here because calls were crazy expensive. The buzzing continued. She was just about to go out into the bedroom to check it when she heard Jim's voice calling through the bathroom door.

"Lover boy is calling. Do you want me to answer it?"

In a panic, Claire ran out into the bedroom and snatched the phone away from Jim. "Don't you dare!" she screeched at him.

Jim chuckled.

Claire looked at the phone. It was Steven. Mustering up excitement, she answered. "Hi, Steven."

"Hello, Claire," Steven's calm voice came over the line. "I just wanted to make sure you arrived there safely."

Claire eyed Jim who was lying on her bed.
What the hell was he doing on her bed?
She turned toward the wall. "Yes, we did. It was a long day, but it was worth it. It really is paradise here. I wish you'd come, too."

"That's good to hear. How is your room?" Steven asked, seemingly avoiding her reference to him being there.

Claire turned a bit and glanced at Jim.
The room would be perfect if I weren't sharing it with my ex.
"It's fine," she told Steven. "There's a lovely view of the ocean."

"Wonderful." After a moment, Steven continued. "Have you thought about my proposal?"

Claire closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Of course she'd thought about it. A lot. But she still didn’t have an answer. "Yes, I've been thinking about it," she said softly. "We can talk more when I get back."

"Okay. That's good," Steven said, sounding happy. "If you're still considering it, then you still might say yes. I know this call is expensive, so I'll let you go. I just wanted to make sure all was well with you."

Claire softened. It was so like Steven to care enough to check on her. She should be happy—no she should be honored to be with a courteous man like him. She turned and eyed Jim. Unlike someone else she knew.

"Thank you, Steven. You are always so thoughtful."

"Have a wonderful time and congratulate Mandy and Craig for me."

"I will. See you in a few days. Goodbye." Claire clicked off the phone.

Slowly, Claire turned around and stared at Jim. "What are you doing in my bed?"

Jim sat up against the extra pillows on the side Claire hadn't slept in. "I'm not
in
your bed, I'm
on
it. See?" He grinned. "I figured you weren't in it, and that cot is murder on my back, so I thought you wouldn't mind if I just lay here."

Claire rolled her eyes. "You could have at least given me some privacy when I was talking to Steven. And, in no way are you to answer my phone. What in the world would Steven think if you answered my phone in my room?"

Jim cocked his head. Even after a night's sleep, his wavy hair fell perfectly into place and his blue eyes were bright and mischievous.
Damn that man looked good no matter where or what he did.
It pissed Claire off.

"You mean you're not going to tell lover boy that we're sharing a room?" Jim asked.

"Stop calling him that," Claire hissed. "And no, I'm not."

"Why not?"

Claire glared at him. "It's complicated."

"What's complicated?" Jim asked.

"Are you going to tell Diane?" Claire shot back.

The grin fell away from Jim's face. "Maybe. I don't know. She'll just have to deal with it," he said. A gleam returned to his eyes. "So, what are you thinking about?"

Claire frowned. "What?"

"You told lover…uh, I mean Steven that you were 'thinking about it'. What exactly are you thinking about?"

"It's none of your business," Claire told him.

"Ah, come on. If you don’t tell me, I'll just have to call him and ask him myself."

"Don't you dare. You leave him alone."

Jim chuckled. "Come on. What is it you're supposed to think about?"

Claire sighed and sat down on the foot of the bed. "It's complicated," she said again.

"You’ve already said that. What's complicated?"

She looked up at Jim. "Steven proposed to me the Saturday before I left."

Jim's expression turned serious. "Proposed?"

"Yes. Proposed. Believe it or not, there is actually a man on this planet who thinks I'm worth marrying," Claire said angrily.

Jim looked at her seriously. "I know you're worth marrying."

"Yeah, right," Claire said.

"So, where's the ring? Why aren't you excited about it?" Jim looked down at Claire's bare hand.

"It's back home. And I am excited about it. A little," she said honestly. "But I haven't said yes yet, so I didn't want to wear the ring."

Jim sat back against the pillows again and looked at Claire curiously. "You haven't said yes? Why not?"

"That's why it's complicated. I don't know if I want to get married again. Ever. You of all people should know why. It's not like my first marriage worked out so well."

Jim looked at Claire, a strange expression crossing his face. She couldn't tell if he was hurt, confused, or upset. "I don’t think we had a bad marriage. We were happy for a long time," he said. "And we raised a beautiful daughter."

"So, you think we had a successful marriage even though it ended?" Claire asked.

Jim's eyes dulled. "You're right. It's complicated."

Claire nodded. "Yeah."

The air in the room hung between them, feeling heavy and suffocating. Neither one spoke. A minute ticked by. The air conditioner clicked on, snapping Jim and Claire out of their reverie.

"Don’t say anything about the proposal to Mandy or anyone else," Claire told Jim. "This is Mandy and Craig's big week. Since I haven't said yes, there's no reason to mention it."

Jim nodded. "Okay." He smiled. "That's a nice outfit you're wearing. I like the whole head wrap thing you have going on there. Is that what you're going to wear to breakfast?"

Claire frowned, then looked down at herself. She was still wearing just a towel wrapped around her body. "Damn it. Why did you let me sit here in a towel? You are evil, you know that?" She jumped up, holding onto her towel and ran back into the bathroom with the sound of Jim's chuckle in her ears.

***

Jim lay on a towel on the beach, shading his eyes against the sun. He watched as Claire, Mandy, and Kaylie walked far out into the blue-green water on the sand bar. Good God, his back ached. That damned cot was worthless to sleep on, and now he was paying the price. He wasn't sure how he was going to survive sleeping on that torturous thing for six more nights.

Jim tried concentrating more on the warm sun and beautiful beach and less on his backache. Looking around, he was amazed at how few people populated this long strip of paradise. If this were a beach in California or Florida, it would be wall-to-wall people. But here, on this small island, there were only about fifteen people spread out along the beach and most of them were from their group.

During breakfast, down by the pool, everyone had decided to take the golf carts and drive the five miles down the island to Land's End beach. The waitress had told them it was the prettiest beach on the island, and at low tide they could walk far out into the water on the sand bars. So, after breakfast, and after the ladies had their meeting with Sandra about the wedding plans, everyone except Janice and Carl had hopped into golf carts and driven to Land's End. The Fishers had declined, saying they were going to explore the gift shops in the small town. Jim, however, figured their not coming along had more to do with Janice not wanting to dirty herself with sand and salt water. Even though Jim really liked Craig, he had a hard time liking Janice and Carl. Janice was too prissy and uptight for his liking and Carl was too full of himself. He was happy that they hadn't come along and ruined the fun.

Jim's eyes turned back to Claire standing beside Mandy and Kaylie in the water. The three women had picked up something from the water and were standing close together, examining it. The younger girls were wearing bikinis. Claire had on a bikini too, but she'd pulled on a pair of jean shorts over the bottoms. Jim wondered why. Even at the age of forty-five, Claire's body could hold its own against the younger girls. Jim smiled as he admired her long legs and narrow waist. If he didn't know any better, he'd think all three women were the same age.

Steven had proposed to Claire. That unwanted thought popped into his head out of nowhere. What in the world did Claire see in that stiff, egotistical, workaholic? Sure, Steven always said all the right things at the right time, but didn’t Claire realize it was a show put on by a practiced salesman? Steven was a phony, through and through. Claire couldn’t possibly want to marry a jerk like that.

But why do I care? I'm the one who left her.
Those words came uninvited into Jim's head.

Jim lifted his body and propped himself up on his elbows, his lower back suffering the consequences of his actions. His eyes scanned the beach. Craig and his friend Cameron were out in the water, snorkeling. Mark was a short distance away from Jim, lying in the sun while Angela walked down the strip of beach looking for seashells. Glen and Lisa had gone on a beer run. But despite everything else Jim could have focused his eyes on, they still returned to Claire.

Jim thought back five years to when he started looking at Diane instead of Claire. He'd just turned forty-one, he was working all the time, and his daughter was grown and in college. Claire was always busy with her boutique, or so it seemed, and Jim found himself spending more time at the office and less time at home. He and Claire had been together for twenty years. They'd grown comfortable with each other. Too comfortable. They no longer etched out time to spend together as they had earlier in their marriage. There were no date nights, no dinners out, and no going to the movies. They saw each other in the morning before work and on Sundays when both were home and Mandy came home for dinner. As far as either of them knew, their marriage was typical of other couples their age. But then, Jim met Diane, and something changed.

Jim had felt he was growing old, and if he admitted it to himself, he'd been afraid of it. Diane, on the other hand, was only twenty-five, had a zest for life, and for some unknown reason had a crush on him. Instead of ignoring her, he'd enjoyed the attention of this younger, attractive woman who built up his ego and made him feel young again. She told him he was handsome, she laughed at his stupid jokes, and she was available. He fell hard for her, and had left Claire behind.

"Why?" he asked aloud as he sat alone on the beach.

"Why what?" Glen walked over with a cooler full of beer and plopped down beside Jim, offering him a bottle. Lisa waved at them and headed out to where Claire and the girls stood in the water.

"Nothing," Jim said in answer to Glen's question. "I was just talking to myself."

"Hmmm. Could be the first sign of heatstroke. Maybe we should get you in the shade," Glen said with a grin.

Jim took a sip of beer and let his gaze trail off toward Claire again. She was laughing at something Lisa had said to her. He wished he could make her laugh again. With him, not at him like she had last night about the creaking cot."

Jim pulled himself up into a sitting position and made an old man grunt from the pain it caused his back.

"What was that coming from you?" Glen asked.

"That's the noise of an old man who slept on a cot last night," Jim told him. "And it isn't pretty."

Glen laughed. "That's what you get for divorcing my sister. It's karma, man."

Jim looked over at Glen. They hadn't spent much time together since the divorce, but when they were together for family events like Mandy's college graduation, Glen had always been nice to Jim. "Why don't you hate me for leaving Claire? You're her big brother. You should have punched me out."

"Well, I did think of it, but I figured your punishment was losing Claire. And if you were happier not married to her, then I guess I thought she'd be happier without you."

Jim stared at Glen. "Is she? Happier without me, I mean?"

Glen shrugged. "She has Steven now. You have Diane. People move on."

Jim turned to look in Claire's direction again. The women were walking back toward shore.

"You have moved on, right?" Glen asked.

Jim looked at Glen. "Huh?"

Glen pointed toward the women. "I have a feeling you're not watching Mandy, Kaylie, or Lisa. If it's Claire you have your sights on, watch out. You're married to Diane now. Claire is off limits."

Jim sighed. "Even if I had my sights on Claire, she'd be the first one to tell me off. So you don't have to worry."

"Good," Glen said. "Don't hurt her again, Jim. She deserves better."

Jim nodded. Glen was right. So why did it bother him so much?

***

Mandy and Claire walked slowly through the water on the sand bar toward the beach. Kaylie had gone ahead of them to lie on the towel beside Mark and Lisa had gone back to sit with Glen.

"How'd it go, sharing a room with Dad last night?" Mandy asked, concern in her voice.

"It was fine," Claire answered, trying to sound upbeat. She laughed. "The cot was the perfect revenge. He could barely walk this morning."

Mandy pursed her lips and stared at her mother. "Mom, that's terrible. I want Dad to enjoy this trip, too."

Claire sobered. "Sorry, hon, but you can't expect me to be happy about sharing a room with your dad. I'm trying to make it work, though."

Claire watched as a worried frown crossed Mandy's face. No one at only twenty-four years old should look that serious on her wedding week. "Don't worry, Mandy. We'll be fine. I was only teasing."

Mandy sighed. "It's not that. Craig and I got into a fight last night about me making you share a room with Dad. I guess his parents were upset about what happened in the office yesterday, and complained to Craig about it. Then he got all uptight about it, too."