Page 31 of Worlds Apart
“Of course you could! But I don’t blame you for not wanting to be bothered with that man. Oh, this makes me so mad. He is in love with you but his head is made of rocks, I tell you.Rocks.”
Sunny turned and looked at her apartment. Two rooms, a tiny kitchen, no balcony. She owned it, but she could sublet it and pay for an apartment in Nairobi that had outdoor space.
She could grow flowers and listen to birds from her own balcony. She could fly to the Mara to see Alice on the weekend. She was already learning Swahili. If she was living in Kenya, then she could visit Tanzania too. She could eat Ethiopian food inEthiopia. She could fly to India. She could swim in the Indian Ocean and vacation in Thailand.
Shecouldmove to Kenya. If not for Martin, then maybe just for herself. She could be a woman who did that. What was the worst that could happen?
What was the worst that could happen? Sunny thought long and hard.
It wouldn’t work and she hated it.
And then?
She could move back.
“Alice, I need to get off the phone.” She closed her eyes. “Please don’t mention to Martin that we talked, okay? I need to think about this and maybe…. I don’t know.”
Alice stopped muttering under her breath. “Wait, are you seriously going to move to Nairobi?”
“I don’t know.” She took a deep breath. “I can’t say yes for sure but… I’m not saying no.”
ChapterNine
Martin didn’t drink alone.He wasn’t much of a drinker at all, but he enjoyed a cocktail with friends, a whiskey with a guest, or a glass of champagne to celebrate an occasion.
He was sitting along in his tent and a third into a bottle of Johnny Walker when Errol came to find him.
“Karanja?”
Martin closed his eyes and said nothing.
“I know you’re in there and I know you’re alone; I’m coming in.”
He didn’t care anymore. It was Sunny’s birthday and he should have been celebrating with her. She was twenty-nine this year and she’d talked about feeling nervous about the change from her twenties to her thirties.
They’d had long conversations about the shifting feelings of growing up and growing older. Transitioning from young person to full fledged adult. The way that parents changed and expectations shifted about life and success.
He and Sunny had talked about everything. Their jobs, their families, their hopes for the future. He’d had a relationship this gem of a human being who wanted to know everything about him and he wanted the same. He wanted to know what had made her laugh that day and what made her unhappy.
He was an idiot.
Errol unzipped the tent flap and caught sight of him. “Good lord, Karanja, this isn’t like you. You look like me.”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He set his near-empty glass on the desk.
“Have you called her to apologize? Have you said that you were angry at the embassy and took it out on her? Have you told her that you received an apology from the ambassador less than a week later?”
“That was my father’s doing, not mine.” John Karanja had been furious that the US government had questioned Martin’s intentions. It had actually led to a helpful discussion about transferring the safari company and some of the other assets that Martin managed into his name instead of the company’s, but the damage had been done.
He’d broken her trust.
“She doesn’t want to live here,” Martin said. “Especially not now. As much as I miss her—as much as I regret my words to her—the fact remains that there’s an ocean and a continent between us, Carberry. I can’t change that.”
“So figure out a way to make it work! Living in the United States could be…fun?” Saying the words made Errol look like he was in pain.
Martin cocked his head and stared at him. “Really?”
His partner pulled up a chair and sat across from him. “Even if it was just for a while, you could try it. Maybe you and your father could start a hotel there. Give you and Sunny time together so you can convince her to move here.” Errol clapped his hands. “That’s the best idea I’ve had yet. Leave this place for me and Alice to run—you know we’re capable—start a business in America for a while, then use that time to convince Sunny to move here. Problem solved.”
