Zuri Day - Platinum Promises

They exited the hotel. “So...what does your friend look like?” Dexter asked. “Is she fine?”

Marissa gave Dexter the side eye. “You are not interested. She has four children.”

“Whoa!”

“Ha! Thought that would make you put that player card back in your pocket. Everyone knows you’re allergic to kids.”

“That’s not true. Kids are cool...as long as they’re not mine.”

“So everything is set for Papa Dee’s party?” Marissa asked, clearly not up for a debate on the value of anyone’s next generation and changing the subject to prove it.

Dexter nodded. “Because of the RSVPs and sold-out rooms, we had to expand the menu, but I consider that a good problem to have. They are working hard to make sure his favorite dishes are executed to perfection.”

“What about the cake?”

“That’s being done by an outside company, one that specializes in imaging. It will feature a picture of Papa, set against a vineyard backdrop, with one hundred candles lighting the way from the countryside to the hotel.”

“Wow. Papa Dee is turning one hundred years old. I can’t even imagine what it will feel like to be in this crazy world another seventy years.”

“I can’t imagine it either,” Dexter said. “But I hope I get to experience it.” They reached his car. “Where are you parked?”

“Not far.”

“You want to ride to the house with me and join us for dinner, since Don is acting like the workaholic that he is?”

“Thanks, Dexter, but no. I think I’ll head on home and make dinner for two.”

“Listen to you sounding all domesticated.”

“Marriage will do that to you,” Marissa said with a laugh. “You ought to try it.”

“Naw, I’m good.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. You saw what happened to the last woman who tried to tie me down.”

“I sure did, but I respect Maria. You can’t be mad at a woman in her thirties who doesn’t want to continue dating—” Marissa used air quotes “—for the next ten years.”

Dexter opened his car door. “On that female-biased note, I’m out.”

“Ha! Whatever.”

“I’ll see you at the party tomorrow.”

“See you.”

Dexter slid into the soft leather seat of his latest toy and made the five-minute trip from the boutique hotel that anchored the resort to the Drake estate to have dinner with his parents. On the way, he thought about what Marissa had said. In two short years both of his older siblings had found their true loves and married them. As a result, his sister, Diamond, had blossomed into an even more beautiful and confident woman with a child on the way, and his brother, Donovan, was happier than Dexter had ever remembered.

“But that’s not you, man,” Dexter said aloud as he pulled into the circular drive of the family home, where he still lived. “There are too many clusters on the vine for you to be satisfied with just one grape.”

Chapter 4

Faye was startled awake, this time by her ringing cell phone. She looked at the clock on her nightstand in amazement, checked that time against what was shown on her watch. What had been intended as a five-minute nap before ordering room service had turned into the first seven uninterrupted hours of sleep she’d had in a very long time. Before, when she’d worked in Africa, and for the past three years that she’d spent in Haiti, four to five hours of sleep per night was the norm, six or seven a luxury. She yawned, stretched and reached for her phone, smiling as she rapidly typed out a text to Ian:

I called and left a message, but here’s a text as well. The brochures don’t do it justice, Doctor! This place is more beautiful than I could have imagined. I plan to enjoy every minute here, and will call you tomorrow. Again, thanks so much.

Eleven-thirty here, Faye thought. That means it’s two-thirty in Haiti. Faye wanted to talk to her best friend, Adeline Marceaux, a native who served as director of Haitian Heartbeats, the organization through which many doctors, including Faye, had entered the country following a devastating earthquake. “She might be up, but I shouldn’t chance it,” Faye said to herself. I’ll just call her tomorrow.

As she placed the phone on the nightstand, it rang. “I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed, looking at the number. “Hello?” The voice on the other end was a bit distorted. Faye pressed the phone against her ear, trying to hear more clearly. “Addie?”

“Faye! Can you hear me?”

“Yes! It’s a little scratchy, but that’s okay.”

“Hold on a minute.” Faye heard a rustling sound, a closing door and then Adeline’s voice, loud and clear.

“Is this better?”

“I can hear you just fine. Girl, you are going to live a long time,” Faye said, a phrase she’d heard the islanders use when someone you were just thinking about got in touch. “I just thought about calling you but figured it was too late.”

“You know how it is—our work is never done.”

“Where are you?”

“Home, now. We just returned from the backcountry,” Adeline explained in the lyrical accent that Faye adored. “Delivering food, water and emergency supplies to some families there. The rains are supposed to begin tomorrow in earnest. We wanted to make sure these provisions were delivered before the roads washed out.”

“I miss Haiti already and wish I were there to help.”

“Don’t worry about us. You are exactly where you need to be, which I assume is the resort. Did you arrive safely?”

“I did.” Faye described what she had seen so far.

“Sounds lovely. Reminds me of a hotel I visited in Saint Thomas.”

Faye stood and began meandering around the room as she talked. “What about the new volunteers? Was their plane able to land?”

“Yes, and you’d like them. One is from Sweden, the grandson of one of Dr. Ian’s friends. The other is a young medical student from Nigeria. Brilliant. Lots of ideas that he learned while helping orphans in the Sudan.”

“Sounds like the kind of help I could use at my clinic.”

“Perhaps. But you’re not supposed to be thinking about work right now. You’re supposed to be relaxing and taking advantage of the amenities that I’m sure are at your fingertips.”

“I know. I’ll try. But I’m so excited about how plans for the clinic are coming together, even though there is still so much to do. The contractor we hired for renovations fell through. He has to be replaced ASAP. Then there are the in-person interviews with the candidates honed from the online résumés received, meetings with the public relations firm and prepping for the benefit fundraiser. Through the churches, shelters and other organizations working with the clinic, there are already almost a hundred children to be screened. I can already use another doctor on board and the nursing staff—”

“Faye!” Adeline’s voice was loud and firm.

“I know,” Faye said with a self-conscious chuckle. “I should be relaxing.” She noticed an envelope that had been slid under the door, and picked it up. “But it’s so hard to turn off, you know?”

“You are a compassionate, dedicated doctor. You give and give until there is nothing left. Now is your time, Faye. For the next week, be a little selfish. Pamper yourself. Get a massage, a mani/pedi...find a cute guy who can knock the cobwebs out of those seldom-used girlie parts.”

“Seriously, Adeline! You did not just go there.”

“Ha! I most certainly did. You’ve gone far too long without the love of a man. It’s time for you to get back in the dating game and find someone to make you happy.”

“I’m already happy,” Faye murmured, opening the

elegant-looking linen envelope and pulling out the gold-embossed card.