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She’d acted affronted. They had no plans. But once she’d finished her walk, she did find herself wondering what he was doing.
“You might want to stay away from Bastian when he gets back,” Remy was saying. “We always fight when he’s been drinking.”
She rolled her eyes.Great. More good news.“I’ll steer clear.”
“That’d be smart. How’s Jack doing?”
She’d texted to tell him what’d happened to her brother’s marriage, and he’d responded with the appropriate amount of surprise. But she suspected he didn’t truly care.
He’d never even met Jack. So maybe she was expecting too much—especially considering the way she felt abouthisbrother. She and Remy probably couldn’t have gotten through the last three years without the support they’d given each other. He’d covered some of the expenses she would’ve been hard-pressed to cover while putting herself through school, and she’d served as an anchor for him—had helped keep him stable under the pressure and had done a lot of the housework so he could focus on his studies. So far, their relationship had been about sticking together and getting through their demanding curriculums. That didn’t necessarily mean they cared deeply for each other’s families. Not yet. “He’s having a hard time.”
“That’s too bad. What he’s going through...” He whistled. “That’d be rough. I mean...humiliating, right?”
Whether it was more humiliating than it would be if Ashleigh had left Jack for a guy was a whole other conversation. She didn’t want to go there, because she knew it might cause an argument. As far as she was concerned, Remy wasn’t as kind or tolerant as he should be.
She considered telling him that Jack was “thinking” about coming to the island, so that he wasn’t blindsided when she told him Jack was there. But she also knew he’d resent the added complication when he was already dealing with so much.
She deliberated over that point until they’d discussed a few more things—their future life together, her career plans. These were topics they discussed often because they had yet to arrive at any solid conclusions. So she wasn’t all that invested in the conversation. She was too busy trying to decide what to do about Jack.
But she knew if her brother was coming, she had to say something eventually. Deciding to get it over with, she said they’d talk more about when to return to LA and whether she should join an established firm once Remy was on Mariners. Then she steered the conversation back to her brother. “My mom’s really broken up about what happened with Jack. It’s been hard on the whole family.”
“Of course it is,” he said, but she couldn’t detect much empathy.
“I told him he should get out of Tremonton—out of Utah. He doesn’t want to be a farmer, anyway. So why stick around for all the gossip and awkwardness? If he leaves now, he might be able to cut the ties that have held him in place with my parents, freeing him up to do anything he wants.”
“That’s true,” Remy agreed. “With such a big upheaval, now would probably be a good time to raise that issue—get it all over with at once.”
“Except he doesn’t really have anywhere else to go. So I told him to come out here for the summer and see what it’s like on the island.”
“Wait...what’d you say?” Remy asked.
She curled her fingernails into her palms. “I told him to come out here. I’d love for the two of you to meet. We could...we could have a lot of fun together.”
“While he’s busted up over the failure of his marriage? How much fun willthatbe?”
“We could cheer him up, help him get over it.”
“But this is our summer off,” he argued. “We’ve worked hard for this. Why would you want to get involved in someone else’s divorce, especially now?”
“Because it’s not justsomeone else’s divorce, Remy. It’s my brother’s divorce. And he’s only twenty-five.”
“I don’t think having him come to Mariners is the answer. He wouldn’t have a job. Wouldn’t know anyone else. For God’s sake, what would he do all summer?”
“The same things we’re going to do,” she said. “Meditate. Read. Relax. Go to the beach. Enjoy the food, the art, the shopping. He could catch up on his sleep and think about where he wants his life to go.”
Silence. She could tell Remy wasn’t pleased. She could even sort of understand. They hadreallybeen looking forward to a certain experience and having Jack around would change that. But it didn’t have to be for the worse. She wasn’t happy about his brother showing up out of the blue, either. At leastherbrother wasn’t an asshole like Bastian was.
“He’s a cool guy,” she insisted.
“Ismay, we’ll have to entertain him twenty-four/seven. And where will he stay, anyway? With us?”
She was glad she’d been intuitive enough to know Remy wouldn’t want her brother at the cottage with them. “There’s a neighbor here who wants to travel to the mainland for at least part of the summer and needs someone to house-sit for her. Maybe he could do that. It’d be free, and he wouldn’t have to stay with us.”
More silence.
“Remy?”
“Surely, he doesn’t want to come clear across the country. I mean, your dad’s a farmer, and we’re going into summer and fall—how will your folks get by without him?”
