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He crossed to the drawers and sorted through her panties. Most were thongs. He’d wondered what she’d choose. He lifted a pair to his nose, just in case any trace of her lingered, but he was disappointed. All he could smell was laundry soap.
He started to put them away. But at the last second, he shoved one in his pocket, smiled at himself in the mirror, and whistled as he walked out.
Jack was packing when he got a call from Donny. He’d been tempted to reach out to Jessica’s soon-to-be ex, if only to compare notes and commiserate. Nothing drew people together like suffering. But he hadn’t been sure he could withstand the other man’s grief. He was having enough trouble dealing with his own.
He almost let the call transfer to voice mail. But just in case Donny had something important to say, something he needed to hear before he left, he picked up at the last second.
“’Lo?”
“Jack?”
They knew each other. They’d watched their wives play in pickleball tournaments, played board games together on an occasional game night, gone out to the movies when the Schultzs could get a babysitter. He and Donny even texted each other occasionally about sports or borrowing a tool here and there—stuff like that.
“It’s Donny.”
“I know.”
“How are you doing?”
Jack’s head prickled, making him want to scratch it harder and harder. “I could be better.”
Donny’s voice dropped. “Can you believe what those bitches did to us?”
Jack winced. As angry and hurt as he was, he had trouble calling Ashleigh names. They’d been together for so long—since they were kids, really. But the way Donny was slurring his words suggested he’d been drinking, so he probably wasn’t thinking clearly. “It’s not an easy situation,” he hedged.
“It’s not an easy situation?” he repeated with a bitter laugh. “I hope they get some kind of venereal disease.”
Jack pressed a thumb and finger against his closed eyelids. “Donny, I don’t want to hear this.”
“What, you’re just going to let her ruin your life?”
“What can I do? Drinking certainly won’t help.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, buddy,” he said. “It’s sure as hell making me feel better.”
“Really? Because you sound pretty angry to me.”
“And you’re not?” he snapped.
He was. He’d never felt such rage. He’d loved Ashleigh so much. He didn’t feel he deserved what’d happened to him, so the injustice cut almost as deeply as the rejection. “I am, of course. But it’s her life and her choice. It’s not as if she’s leaving because of something I can change.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“What?”
“Maybe you can just throw up your hands and say, oh, well, but I can’t. I’ve lost my kids, man. Half my net worth. And in the most public and humiliating way imaginable. Ashleigh and Jessica are stupid if they think I’m going to take all that lying down.”
“You need to be careful with that kind of thinking,” Jack said, but Donny didn’t respond. He just called him a fucking loser and hung up. Jack threw his phone on the bed as if it were a poisonous snake.
He’d texted Ashleigh to tell her he was leaving town and that he’d given their landlord notice. His brother Hank said he’d pack up his stuff and move it all to the farm before the end of the month—what was left of it, anyway. And his mother had said she’d clean the place to make sure he received his deposit, which made him eternally grateful to both of them. He’d also told Ashleigh that since she had the car, it was now her responsibility to make the payments. But she hadn’t responded to either text.
If she didn’t pay, he figured he’d have to, and he might have to pay their credit card bills, too, until they could divvy up their obligations in the divorce proceedings. He couldn’t allow her to ruin his credit. That was the only thing he had left. But right now, there were certainly bigger things to worry about than money—like his sanity.
Don’t think about Ashleigh. Don’t think about Donny. Don’t think about any of it. Just keep packing.
If he didn’t, he’d miss his plane to Boston, and if he had to catch a later one, he’d miss his connection to the island.
Ismay couldn’t help feeling a little anxious as she stood at the neighbor’s door with Bo at her side. She figured she could possibly find her brother a room to rent, but the people who lived on Mariners weren’t really the type to need the income, so she wasn’t very hopeful she’d come across that kind of situation. This opportunity was an anomaly. So it felt like there was a lot riding on this visit.
