“It was. My mom took me to the doctor. He diagnosed migraines and put me on medicine that didn’t always work that well. I started getting them a lot, like once or twice a month, and missed a ton of school. That was a problem for my dad. He made me go, even when I could barely function.”
“Why would he do that?” Jace asked, sounding appalled.
“Because he believed in bucking up and not giving in to weaknesses.”
“A migraine isn’t a weakness, but of course you know that. What the hell was wrong with him?”
“So many things it would take me all night to tell you.”
“Is it okay to say I already can’t stand him?”
She laughed and immediately regretted it when her head throbbed. “It’s okay. No one can stand him, least of all his ex-wife and children.” Cindy glanced at the beer bottle he was holding. “Are you allowed to have that?”
“It’s nonalcoholic, but alcohol was never my problem.”
“Is it okay that I asked that?”
“You can ask me anything you want. My life is an open book these days. It’s recommended that we stay away from all of it, not just our drug of choice.”
“Is that where you were this morning?”
Nodding, he said, “I go to the AA meeting at eight.” He raised his bottle in toast to the statement. “They don’t have Narcotics Anonymous here, so AA keeps me working the program. After that, I went to coffee with some friends from the meeting and then to the gym. Before work, I went out to Seamus and Carolina’s and got to see my boys and picked up those boxes.” He pointed to a corner of the living room.
Cindy hadn’t noticed them.
“They were with the stuff that came from my ex-wife’s house after she passed away. Seamus also showed me where she’s buried.”
“Was it hard to be there?”
He nodded. “Seeing her name on a stone was so final, you know?”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“It wasn’t really my loss.”
“Wasn’t it, though? You were married to her when everything went wrong. Did you ever see her again?”
“Nope. The only contact I ever had with her was when I received divorce papers in prison that also gave her full custody of our kids. Since I was serving a ten-year sentence, I signed the papers.”
“What about you?”
“That didn’t matter. I wanted the best for them, and me being out of their lives was for the best.”
“You made a mistake, Jace. You shouldn’t have to pay for that for the rest of your life.”
“What I did was more than a mistake. I’ll pay for the choices I made back then for the rest of my life because my brother is dead, and I’ll always be a convicted felon.”
“That doesn’t have to define you, though. You can write a whole new chapter for yourself now that you’re out of prison and starting over.”
“Are you always this positive and optimistic?” he asked, smiling.
“Not always. That mindset took some work, but it’s how I try to look at things these days.”
“It’s a good way to look at things. Are you happy here on the island?”
“I love it. It’s my favorite place in the whole world. We looked forward to the summer here all year long. My grandmother would put us to work the minute we arrived, but we didn’t care. We were so damned glad to be here.”
“That sounds like a great way to spend a summer.”