“Oh, you poor kids. The workplace is so competitive, I’m surprised you don’t all have ulcers. Mark is stressed about securing a new position, too. To think, in the past six months his marriage fell apart and then he lost his job and now it looks as if his ex-wife will get the house.”
Zoey stopped crying to ask, “Mark is unemployed, too?”And what’s this about him losing his house? That would explain his sudden urgency to push Aunt Ivy out ofhers.
“Uh-oh. I thought you knew. Please don’t tell him I told you.”
“I won’t,” Zoey promised.
“I keep telling him he’s going to make himself sick. That he shouldn’t worry so much because even if his ex-wife takes the house, he can always live with me. But he says Hope Haven is no place for a traveling sales rep, since most of his clients would be off-island. It would be too inconvenient to have to travel back and forth by ferry every day.”
I’m glad for that,Zoey thought. She was even gladder her aunt had invited Mark to live with her because it meant she wasn’t considering forfeiting the house to him any time soon.
“I wish I had a way to help him.” Her aunt sighed.
“Mark is very resourceful. Very tenacious. He’s not going to give up his house without a fight. And he’ll find a job again soon—he always does. But if not, you’ve already told him he could come here to live. So it’s not as if he’s going to be homeless.”
“I should say not!” Ivy rubbed her eyes. “But you know, I think that’s what my sister-in-law was afraid could happen. She was too ill to discuss it with me, but when she found out Mark’s ex-wife might get the house, she was terribly distraught. Sometimes I’d hear her mumbling about it in her sleep. Saying it just wasn’t right.”
Zoey recalled that on the last day of Sylvia’s life, her great-aunt had made a similar remark to her, too. “It’s not fair… That boy can only take so much.” Zoey couldn’t agree that Mark was being unduly victimized, but she appreciated why his grandmother’s love or guilt or fear might have colored her perspective. And to be fair, Sylvia had sounded equally concerned about Zoey losing her job and savings. What was it she’d said? Something like, “What about Zoey? She’s such a dear girl… Where will she live?”
As she recalled that some of her great-aunt’s final thoughts were aboutherwell-being, Zoey felt like crying again. She reassured Ivy that Mark would land on his feet and then she quickly changed the subject. “I’ve been meaning to ask you if you noticed whether there was anything going on between Gabi and Aidan?”
“They’re friends, if that’s what you mean but there’s nothing romantic between them.”
She turned her head to face her aunt, who didn’t seem half as sleepy as Zoey felt. “Gabi told you that?”
“She didn’t have to. I gleaned it from how they played cribbage as partners.”
Zoey tittered. “Love isn’t in the cards for them, is that what you’re saying?”
Her aunt missed the pun, replying earnestly, “No, it isn’t. They’re both bright but she was so focused on helping him learn the game that she wasn’t playing her best. There’s a time to help, but she overdid it. And he didn’t mind because he wasn’t trying to impress her. Otherwise he would have made more of an effort. They enjoy each other’s company, but they’re like siblings. Nothing more.”
As confident as Ivy sounded, Zoey wasn’t sure she agreed with her aunt’s appraisal. “You got all that from a card game?”
“Yes. Now let me tell you what I observed about you and Nick.”
“No. Please don’t.”
Her aunt ignored her. “As far as whether the two of you will wind up together, it’s hard to say. There’s definitely a spark. But I noticed you didn’t seem to trust him to make the right move. Every time it was his turn to play a card, you held your breath.”
That’s because the last time I didn’t watch what someone was doing, he cleaned out my retirement account.“What can I say? I wanted to win—I’m competitive.”
“My dear girl, you even did it when you weren’t on the same team.”
Zoey chuckled, in spite of herself. “What did you notice about Nick?”
“He shuffles too long.”
“That’s it? His shuffling? What’s that got to do with anything?”Especially with whether or not he and I would make a good couple.
“Think about it.” Ivy tapped her head knowingly. “The longer you take to shuffle, the longer it takes to get in the game. Meanwhile, the other players get restless. They lose interest.”
She’s forcing that metaphor,Zoey thought. Yet she had to admit, shehadbeen disappointed that until today, she hadn’t heard from Nick all week. Despite her blunder, they’d hit it off so well on Saturday, that even though she’d supposedly sworn off dating until the fall she had kind of hoped he’d ask her out. Or at least make some excuse to touch base with her. Was this him procrastinating, as Ivy indicated? Or wasn’t he as interested in her as Zoey was becoming in him?
She wanted her aunt to do an assessment of one more pair of partners. But who? Not her mother and father. Although on occasion they’d indulge Ivy and Sylvia in a game, they both hated cribbage and would slap down any card just to get the hand over as quickly as possible. Zoey was already painfully aware of the similarity between how they’d partnered in cards and how they’d partnered in marriage.
“What did you see about my sister and Scott’s relationship when they played cards?” she whispered because Ivy’s eyes were closed and she didn’t know if she was sleeping.
“Scott and Jess? Nowtheywere a good pair. You wouldn’t have thought so because he could be so conservative and she was so daring. But there was a give and take between them and it all evened out.” Ivy’s voice was so soft Zoey hardly heard her mumble, “As soon as I saw them playing cribbage—they weren’t married yet—I told Sylvia, ‘Mark my words. Their union will last a lifetime.’”
