Chapter 17
Faith

Faith woke up groggy and alone. She ran her hand along Alex’s side of the bed, but it was cold. She furrowed her brow and searched for a clock. After the night—and, more importantly, the early morning—her internal clock was a mess.

She squinted her eyes at the little old-fashioned alarm clock that rested on Alex’s side of the bed. Seven in the morning? Where is he?

Faith groaned and buried her face in the pillow. Is he regretting everything? Stop overreacting. Maybe he just went for a run.

She found some instant coffee in the kitchen and boiled water. Outside, the morning chores were being handled by Mama’s team. Faith pulled on her shorts and blushed slightly at her balled-up ripped thong that had been tossed beside them. Her shirt was a mess, wrinkled and stretched from being used as handcuffs.

In Alex’s dresser, she found one of his old college T-shirts and pulled it on. By the time she’d downed the coffee, he still hadn’t returned, and it was no longer officially dawn. She’d have to sneak back into the inn soon if she were to avoid questions.

As she rounded the curved trail toward the house, there was no sign of Mama or any of the guys. Jessie swept the front porch, which meant all the exterior doors were probably unlocked. The remains of the cross were still evident in the front lawn. It pulled at Faith’s stomach as she jogged behind the trimmed hedges toward the back door.

Fortunately, Mama’s home still had most of its original design. That meant the back door was reserved for servants and deliveries, with almost a completely separate compartment. However, there was a hidden back staircase she could take up to the second floor. It would just require some wiggling through a never-used children’s nursery storage door to get to her bedroom.

Miraculously, she didn’t run into anyone en route to her bedroom. Matt’s bedroom door was closed, and she could hear the faucet running in the bathroom Caleb and Lee shared.

Faith sighed in relief when she finally made it to her room. She leaned against the closed door and was greeted with a neatly swept-up floor. The glass. Shit. Who had cleaned it up? Mama? Jessie? And at what time? Did they realize she never went back to bed?

Of course, Alex had told her that she’d have to stay in a spare guest room anyway. Is that what they think? It would be strange for Mama not to at least check in with her and make sure she was comfortable in a new bedroom. How much do they know? For all Faith knew, the whole house had seen her run off to Alex’s cabin before dawn.

What’s the point in stressing about it? she asked herself as she stripped off Alex’s too-big shirt. Faith gasped as she caught sight of herself in the vanity mirror. Her chest and neck were covered in hickeys and bite marks. She examined her throat and pressed her fingers into the blue and black marks. Jesus, were we that rough?

Faith brushed out her tangled hair and turned on the shower of the en suite. Whoever had cleaned up, they’d gone all-out. The new bedding smelled of fresh cotton, and there were new towels in the bathroom.

As she stood under the water, she ran her fingers through her folds and winced. She was still incredibly sore. But then again, it had been a while, she reminded herself.

Her hair was still damp and hung in long ropes when she finally made it downstairs. She’d carefully arranged it around her neck, which was also partially covered with the collar of a button-up blouse. Mama sat at the breakfast table with a mug of coffee. “Sleep okay, sugar?” Mama asked. Faith scanned her face for a tell but found nothing.

“Pretty good,” she said. “Mama, I’ve been meaning to ask you. With all the renovations at the property and everything? It’s going to take a lot longer to get started than I thought. So I was wondering—”

“You wanna stay a spell longer?” Mama asked.

“I mean, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“No trouble at all! Don’t be silly.”

Alex walked into the kitchen and nodded to Faith. “‘Morning, Mama,” he said.

“Morning, baby. Y’all headed out to Faith’s property today?”

“Don’t know,” Alex said. “You’ll have to ask her.”

“Excuse me?” Mama said at his tone.

“You’ll have to ask her. Ma’am,” he corrected himself.

“No, not today,” Faith said quietly.

Alex’s gazed lingered on her a moment, just enough to make her self-conscious of their shared night. But eventually, he took his coffee to go. How can he just act like nothing happened? Faith fumed inside but had to hold it together in front of Mama.

“That boy,” Mama said with a sigh. “Well. You know how he can be.”

Yeah, I’m starting to see, Faith thought. But why am I so mad anyway? It’s not like we promised each other anything. Still, he could have at least given her a sign of how things were between them. Or he could have at least not sneaked out at the crack of dawn!

“Well, that’s just fine,” Mama said. “If y’all aren’t doin’ any reno work today, how about we spend some time together? I can show you round the island. Tell you a little more ʼbout its history. Say, an hour?

“That sounds great,” Faith said with a smile.

 

As soon as she heard Mama’s bedroom door close upstairs, Faith rushed outside to the cabin. “Hey,” she said as she walked in unannounced. Alex looked at her in surprise. He stood in the kitchen, shirtless, prepping his usual high-protein afternoon snack.

“Hey, yourself.”

“What was that all about?” she asked.

“What?”

“What? You acting all normal in there? Like . . . like nothing happened? How can you—”

“Whoa, whoa,” he said as he held his hands up. “I, Faith, I’m sorry. Leaving this morning, that was a dick move on my part.”

“Yeah, well,” she said with a huff. Faith slouched onto one of the barstools at the island and grabbed a strawberry from the cutting board.

“But, shit, this is hard,” he said as he put down the knife.

“What?” She had a sinking feeling in her gut.

“What we did last night? It wasn’t right.”

“Wasn’t right?”

“It shouldn’t have happened,” he said, though he couldn’t look her in the eye.

“You’re telling me this now? I’m about to go on a historical drive with your mother! What am I supposed to do?”

“You go,” he said simply. Alex rested his hands on the island and looked up at her.

“Well, of course I’m going! But tell me why. What happened? What could have possibly changed in the past twelve hours?”

He sighed. “It’s, damn, it’s clichéd. I want to say it’s not you, it’s me, but—”

“Damn right, it’s you,” Faith said. He winced, and she knew it was a low blow. But it hurts me, too.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply. “It won’t happen again.”

“Yeah,” she said as she stood up. “You’re telling me.”

“Don’t be upset,” he said to her back.

Faith turned slowly. “Upset? I’m not upset,” she said. “In fact, I’d rather know now, rather than later.”

“I like you,” he said. “I do. But it’s just not that easy with me.”

“And whose fault is that?” she asked before she turned and walked out.

 

She met Mama on the porch right before noon, still angry about her talk with Alex but determined not to let it show. Mama directed her to another garage on the other side of the property and revealed a little green Alfa Romeo. “I didn’t know you had this!” Faith squealed when Mama pulled it out of the garage.

“Don’t drive it much anymore,” Mama said. “But when I do? Girl, you better watch out. Hop in.”

As they left the property, Mama took a different road than any of the guys ever did. “Pirates used to own this land, near ʼbout,” Mama said. “Ran the whole coast of Georgia. Sneaking in liquor and all sorts of goods to the mainland via this very island. And all the nearby ones. Including yours,” she said with a smile.

Mama with her hair wrapped in a silk handkerchief and the white-framed sunglasses looked just like a movie star. Faith kept ahold of her own long plait and hoped the baseball cap she’d pulled on would be enough to keep the tangles at bay. The little convertible handled the curves of the road surprisingly well.

“So are there still any pirates out and about?” Faith asked. She let her hand glide in the wind.

“Oh, shush,” Mama said. “Don’t be silly.”

“I’m just saying,” Faith said with a laugh. “I mean, I wonder if the islands could be used for smuggling, though. It seems like the perfect setup. I’d never even heard of them before I got that letter from Lydia’s estate attorney.”

“I don’t know nothin’ ʼbout that, dear,” Mama said. “Anything’s possible, I s’pose. Lots of young girls and boys are trafficked through here.”

“What?” Faith asked. Mama had said it so nonchalantly, like she was talking about dairy farming.

“Oh, you know. Run up through a bunch of farms where they’re used as slaves. Or sex slaves. Human trafficking’s big business, you know!” she said. “Always has been. Just doesn’t get the media attention as much as some other things, but it hasn’t gone anywhere.”

“Huh,” Faith said. She felt like she shouldn’t show how shocked she was. Sex slaves? Human trafficking? On Saint Rose? “How, um. How big are the islands? Population-wise?”

“Oh, I have no idea, sugar,” Mama said. “That’s something for the goggle.”

“The what?”

“The goggle or whatever it is. What y’all kids use to look things up on the World Wide Web.”

“Oh, Google.”

“That’s what I said.”

Faith made a mental note to look into it. Surely if it were common knowledge, and even Mama threw it around like it was cocktail conversation, there would be plenty of articles available.

“I’m surprised you slept so well,” Mama said. Faith braced herself for the change of topic.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said. “I guess with the scare and excitement last night, I just—”

“That bed in the cabin’s not too comfortable,” Mama interjected.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, please,” Mama said with a laugh. “I might be in my golden years, but I’m not stupid. I see how Alex looks at you when he thinks no one’s lookin’. And how you look at him.”

Faith blushed. I guess I wasn’t that discreet after all. “How much . . . how much do you know?” she asked.

“Oh, I reckon plenty,” Mama said. “That’s what happens when you get to be my age. You notice a lot more. Thanks to experience. And, well, not havin’ much else to do.”

“I’m . . . I’m sorry,” Faith said, though she wasn’t sure why. “I didn’t . . . I didn’t expect to come here, and—”

“Sugar, you got nothin’ to be sorry for,” Mama said. “I’ll admit I’m a bit biased, but I made some good-lookin’ boys, both of ʼem. But I know Alex got that dark mystery ʼbout him that drives young girls crazy.”

“Yeah, well. I think that might have come back around to bite me,” Faith said. Mama had turned the car onto a narrow road that hugged the water. “It’s clear he doesn’t want anything serious. Not that I necessarily do, either. But . . .”

“I think you’re wrong,” Mama said.

“What?”

“I said I think you’re wrong. Look at you,” she said, and glanced over at Faith. Even with the glasses, Faith discerned the worry on her face. “Gettin’ all upset over how some silly boy acts. I can say that, ʼcause he’s mine,” she said. “But you . . . you gotta look deeper than the surface with Alex.”

“How so?” Faith asked. She was eager for some kind of secret, the key to Alex’s lock. She partially hated herself for letting him get to her like that, but she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. Maybe Mama had that key. “I mean, I know about his wife. About Rebecca. You can’t get over something like that so easily. It makes sense that he’s still steaming over it—”

“Oh, it’s been plenty of time,” Mama said as she downshifted for a hill. “That girl, that wife of his? Never liked her. Nobody did. I’m not even sure Alex did, but she was his first. Puppy love an’ all that. And she was a big-city girl, so for him that meant exotic and wild and different.”

Faith bit her tongue when she thought about telling Mama she was a big-city girl, too.

“But she wasn’t like you,” Mama said. “Don’t think us island folk assume everyone from the city is the same. You might come from San Francisco, Miss Capshaw, but you don’t have that big-city mind-set.”

“I was born on the beach,” Faith said quietly.

“What’s that now?”

She cleared her throat. “I was born in a little beach town an hour from Los Angeles,” she said. “My mom was an actress but gave it all up. I don’t . . . I don’t remember much of the early years. But I grew up in another beach town not far away. I think I made it into the city maybe once a year.”

“The beach is in your blood,” Mama said with a nod.

Is it? Is that why it feels so much like home here?

“But believe me, Faith, when I tell you. Alex’s wife? That girl had a strange hold on him. An unhealthy one. The way she’d flirt with—well, never mind ʼbout that. But it’s over now. I know that. Seems all it took was another pretty woman to have remedied any lingering spell she had on him.”

Mama didn’t take her eyes off the road when she said it, and Faith was grateful. Her entire face flushed pink.

“Just,” Mama started slowly. She reached over and took Faith’s hand. “Don’t hurt my boy, all right?”

Hurt him? Alex? Faith nearly laughed at the thought. It would be about as easy to hurt him as it would a porcupine.

“ʼCause if you do, I’m afraid I’ll have to come after you,” Mama said. Her smile told Faith it was all in fun. “And remember, now. I do know where you live. Just one island over. Lydia mighta kept to herself, but that’s not your style, that I can see.”

“Oh now I don’t live there, Mama,” Faith said with a laugh. “That would be a death wish at this point. But did you know much? About Lydia, I mean?” She couldn’t bring herself to say “aunt” anymore, it shot a chill up her spine.

“Nah, not much,” Mama said, though she paused too long. “And maybe you don’t live there yet,” Mama said. “But you wouldn’t be puttin’ so much work, time, and love into that land if you weren’t thinking on it. I’ve heard how you talk about that place. It’s a home of yours. Well, here we are,” Mama said.

Faith looked up and saw they’d come full circle. Greystone Inn loomed like a majestic castle at the end of the long drive. She glanced at her watch and saw they’d whittled away nearly two hours on the road, though it felt like just a few minutes.

Mama pulled up to the front of the inn via the circular drive and left the engine running while Faith stepped out. “Why don’t you let me help you put it in the garage?” Faith asked as she leaned over the little green car.

“Nonsense, I’ve been taking care of this baby on my own for decades,” Mama said. “Now, shoo, you go on in and get some of Gwen’s sweet tea for yourself.”

“Thanks, Mama,” Faith said.

“And, Faith? Remember what I said. You be good to my boy now.” Mama smiled as she drove to the garage.

Yeah. You might want to tell him the same thing about me.