Page 14 of The Other Side of Paradise
Ryan sighed heavily. “Where’s Mom? I’m assuming Shane got to her to tell her his version of events…”
Oscar was the one to say, “Mom’s in her room. Getting ready for the proper breakfast.”
I pursed my lips. “Where’sShane?” I said. “I’ll go give him a piece of my mind.”
Ryan put her hands up in a defensive gesture. “Please don’t. I know you’re trying to make the situation better, but please don’t. I’m going to see Mom before we go out.”
I swallowed hard past the bitter spike of frustration—the thought of Ryan just rolling over and accepting it made me feel like I’d rather walk into the ocean than deal with this damn family just keeping up appearances. If she’d just walked out for a night and was back to play nice and patch it all up, I was going toscream.“What, are you going to be polite now?” I said. “Try not to start something? I’m going to find him. God dammit—” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m so pissed off, like Iknewthis was going to happen.”
“Stella, please,” Ryan said with a sigh, stepping away. “Thanks for the support. Just don’t… make things worse with Shane. I’m… I’m going to talk to Mom now.”
“I’m sorry he’s such a piece of shit,” I muttered, looking off towards the resort, trying to pinpoint where Shane’s room was. For… no reason. “I’m glad you dumped him. I knew this was going to happen. I can’t believe he’d already been cheating.”
Ryan made a face, but she didn’t get to say anything before we were joined by the last person we needed—Aunt Helena’s voice coming up from the beach behind us, calling out, “What’s happening?” and I looked back with a glower at where maybe my least favorite relative Helena Saxton came up behind us, a tall and thin woman who carried herself like she thought she should have been at Martha’s Vineyard instead of here. Of all the snooty people in my family who let the money get to their heads,Aunt Helena was the worst—and she’d barely made any secret of being pissed off that her husband didn’t want kids and she was jealous that her immature younger sister had the audacity to havetwins.Of course, she never said that out loud, and nobody ever talked about it, because nobody ever saidanythingout loud in this family. Aunt Helena made a face at Ryan. “Oh, god, Ryan. I thought you’d up and run away from us all. How long have you been back?”
“Just got back,” Ryan said, moving past her. “Going to go see Mom about some stuff.”
Oh—was that what we were doing? Being polite and genteel, sweeping the whole thing about Shane cheating under the rug? I was not going along with another polite cover story. I squeezed my hands. “Some stuffbeing Shane fucking cheating on her.”
“Stella,” Ryan groaned. “I don’t want to do this right now.”
Aunt Helena laughed once, her face scrunched up in confusion, looking like a bullfrog when she did. “Is this all some kind of joke?”
“Yes,” Ryan cut in before I could say anything. “Stella’s just having some big feelings. Please ignore her.”
Oh, we were not fucking doing that. I gestured to Ryan. “She just dumped Shane’s sorry ass because he was trying to sleep with the bartender.”
Oscar glowered at me. “Stella, do you listen?”
Hard to listen when nobody actually said anything. Aunt Helena looked horrified between us before she said, “I’m sure this is all some kind of mistake. Shane loves you desperately.”
Ryan tightened her posture, a flicker over her features, before she said, “Shane admitted it to me himself, so I’m inclined to believe him. Brooklyn told me he’d been taking her back to his room until she realized a couple was staying there, so shetracked me down and told me. It’s pretty damn clear what’s going on here.”
Aunt Helena had the fucking audacity to scowl at her. “Was this really the best time for all this?”
I shot her a look, hands up. “What are you talking about?” I said incredulously. “It’s not Ryan’s fault he cheated on her now.”
Aunt Helena shook her head. “I understand everyone has relationship issues, but making a scene out of it as soon as we finally get the family together and we’re on vacation—”
I was going to start throwing hands. “Are you out of your fucking mind?” I said, and Aunt Helena looked like she was going to have a stroke.
“Stella. Don’t use that kind of language here.”
Oh, she was lucky I wasn’t using worse. “Ryan’snot the one making a scene if it’sShanesneaking around and trying to fuck the bartender—”
“He didn’t sleep with her,” Aunt Helena said. “Your husband is going to think about other women sometimes, and it’s never good for anyone involved, but you can’t lose your cool about it.”
Jesus. I didn’t even know where to start with that. “It’s not even the first time he’s cheated on her,” I said, breathless and incredulous, and Aunt Helena sighed, like we were the unreasonable ones.
“Still, communication is important,” she said. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation here.”
Oh, could she not? This conversation could be done real fast if she had the tiniest bit of sense. Ryan let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’twantto be. I want to go talk to my mother now.”
Aunt Helena put her hands up. “We’re only having this conversation because—”
Oscar cut in, a hand up. “Look, great conversation and all, but if nobody wants to talk about this, can we drop it? If we’regoing to start shouting at each other, I want to put a shirt on first.”
Aunt Helena gave me her practiced self-righteous look. “You bring this conversation up, and now you want to yell at me about having it?”
