Brothers of Paradise Series

“The family,” he says.

I nod and lift the lid off a pasta dish. Of course. “I saw Henry at the regatta yesterday.”

“Yes, he’s in town with his family. I’m sorry he didn’t see you. He would have wanted to say hi.”

I doubt that, but I don’t comment. “Is it rare that three out of you four are in the same place?”

“Not so much anymore, but it has been for a while, yeah.” He rolls his eyes. “Rhys is impossible to pin down.”

“That’s always been his MO, though.”

“A rebel without a cause,” Parker says. “Oh, that pasta basically split the table down the middle. I want to hear what you think.”

I pop it into the microwave and grab a beer for him. He settles into the same chair Emma had sat in just that morning and watches me move around the space. Long legs stretched out in front, blue eyes calm. He has the same ease here as he does in the restaurant. His hand curls around the beer bottle, and in my mind I see it tightening the straps of life vests.

“I heard about you and Lily,” he says.

I look down at my plate of pasta. “We spoke at the regatta.”

“Yeah. She saw Emma, too.”

“Emma called her the paint lady,” I say softly.

Parker laughs. “Like I said, she’s a clever girl.”

I swirl tagliatelle around my fork. There’s clams in here, and crab, and a tomato sauce that smells spicy. “It was a quick conversation, though,” I say. “We’re meeting up next week.”

“Mhm.” Parker nods to my fork. “Tell me what you think.”

I eat, and it’s delicious, the sauce an explosion of tomato and seafood. And then the spice hits. It’s deceptively subtle at first but soon rises in strength. I reach for my glass of water.

“Yeah, that was our reaction too,” Parker says. “Dad only took one bite and said it was inedible. Faye cleared her plate and called us all pathetic.”

I chuckle. “Faye? Henry’s wife?”

“Yes, she’s a badass. Her dad’s Mexican and raised her up with a lot of spicy food. But it’s good, right?”

“It’s delicious. You should definitely have it on the menu, but… maybe two versions?”

“Two versions?”

“One less spicy and one more. Or maybe one with this tomato sauce and another with a non-spicy cream version.” I shrug. “I’m not a chef, though.”

“It’s an option.” He pushes a bowl of hot chowder my way. “How do you feel about meeting up with Lily next week?”

I swirl my spoon around in the creamy liquid. “What is this? Therapy hour?”

“I’m curious.”Belonging to NôvelDrama.Org.

“Too curious,” I say, and make my voice teasing. “Not to mention I don’t know where your loyalties lie. What if you report it all to Lily?”

His eyebrows rise. “I’ve barely told her anything about you, you know. She asked me about you every day for a while.”

“Did she?”

He nods. “I didn’t tell her about Emma.”

I taste a spoonful of chowder and think of the conversations they must have had. “Thank you, Parker.”

His gaze softens. “Grateful you is a new version, too. Compared to the past.”

“I was a brat back then.”

“You were spirited,” he says. “There’s a difference.”

I snort. “You’re being generous, and this soup is delicious.”

“Agreed. It’s a clear winner.” He pushes a piece of fried fish across the table. “What about this?”

It’s half an hour later when I finally have to give up. I lean back, hands up in surrender. “I’m full,” I say. “Can’t stomach another bite. But it’s delicious, Parker. A great new direction for the restaurant.”

“The classics, but updated,” he says.

“Yes. Oh, that reminds me… I added some new things to the website. Let me show you.”

That’s how we end up on the couch in my living room, side by side, my mom’s laptop propped up across my knees. The sun has long since set outside the windows.

Parker takes up a lot of space. He always had, back in the day, too. When I’d been at Lily’s and her big brother had occupied the entire couch, the loud sound of sports from the TV. Lily had always preferred their grandmother’s old armchair, so I’d sat on the couch next to him.

We’re sitting closer now than we ever did back then.

“So they’d be able to book through here…”

“Yes,” I say. “All restaurant bookings here, and all sailing bookings… right here, if you click back to lessons.”

“It’ll take so much work off Neil and Stephen.”

“It should, shouldn’t it? I mean, some people will still call, but now there’s a place to direct them toward.” I return to the home page. Mom’s old computer takes a full minute to make the simple shift. “But I think it’ll look even better when we have new images here, for the slideshow. We should photograph the food, too, when the menu is set. A lobster roll, a bowl of clam chowder. Were you going to ask Rhys?”

“Already done,” Parker says. “He’ll do it when he finally shows back up in town. Shouldn’t be long, but knowing him, it could be.”

I smile. “Well, then. I think most things are done.”

“Not the store,” he says. “Have you ordered the other prototypes? With the new logo?”

“Yes.”

“And you put it all on the company card, using the details I gave you?”