Read Online The Sea Grape Tree by Gillian Royes - Free Book Online Page B

“from two o’clock to five.”
    â€œIf you’re free tomorrow,” Danny said, looking at Shad but leaning toward Janet.
    â€œI can’t go tomorrow,” Shad said. “I have to go to the clinic with Beth and Ashanti. The nurse come on Friday.”
    â€œI can go,” Janet piped up.
    â€œYou can?” Danny said, turning to grin at her. “That’s cool. Where should we go first?”
    â€œBlue Hole,” Shad said, trying to ignore Tri’s beckoning finger. “You should take a trip to Blue Hole in Port Antonio, man, beautiful lagoon with deep, deep water in the middle. We can go Monday. Is my day off.”
    â€œWhat about tomorrow?” Janet asked.
    â€œTomorrow is good,” Danny said. “I have to take a taxi to Port Antonio to rent a car, but then I’m free.”
    â€œMy cousin Marvin can take us to Port Antonio,” Janet said. “He always charge me half fare.”
    Shad strolled to the other end of the counter and refilled Tri’s glass. The aging fisherman slurped a bit off the top. “Look like Janet have the hotel man under heavy manners already,” he said.
    â€œIf she get her claws into him is worse than a crab,” Eli whispered. “She never let him go.”
    â€œI just hope he don’t catch crabs.” Tri snickered, slapping Eli on the arm, and the two men doubled over.
    â€œShush your mouth,” Shad muttered. “Next thing, the man hear you.”
    â€œIs not true?” Tri said, his thin frame still trembling. “You don’t see how she working it?”
    â€œShe a seamstress, you don’t know?” Eli hissed. “She sewing up the business.”
    â€œYou mean, she going to pump his treadle?” Tri laughed so hard he almost fell off his bar stool, and his friend had to steady him.
    Waving their foolishness away, Shad moved back to his stool in front of Danny. He might as well not have been there, the man was so engrossed in Janet’s description of the sights she was going to show him. She was waving her hands around, telling him which beach was best, and then talking about a night club in Ocho Rios she wanted to show him, and how she would teach him to dance the reggae like a real Jamaican. And Shad could see that there was no going back now, just by the way Danny was smiling, his fingers tapping the counter halfway between him and the woman, a few beads of sweat on his forehead above the delighted smile, the increased budget forgotten. When he laughed, he gave a throaty laugh, full of desire and of feeling desired, and if the two of them didn’t sleep together tonight, Shad knew, they would do it tomorrow night.
    After they’d left—Danny insisting that he had to walk Janet home—Shad washed up the dirty glasses at the bar sink, worrying, sometimes bringing God into it, that the dressmaker would mess up the hotel deal and his dream of a prosperous Largo. Maybe he should warn Danny that Janet was only looking for a husband to give her a green card. But if he warned him, Danny might think that Largo people just wanted to use him and his money, and he wouldn’t see that they were good people who talked the truth most of the time.
    He tried to see how it would end if Danny fell for the leggo gal, the hussy, and it made his stomach go from a churn to a knot. No scenario had a happy ending. He saw them lying side by side on a beach, drinking and dancing in a club, ripping off each other’s clothes, and tumbling into a bed. He visualized (too clearly, he chastised himself) Janet straddling Danny, her sumptuous breasts swinging as she worked him and worked him, felt the sweaty exhaustion as they lay together in a heap afterward.
    This was followed by the even more troublesome thought that, a few months down the road, Janet might dump Danny because his penis was too small or he was too cheap or he was already married, and Shad was sure that, having found