smiled, Jason’s taunt returned to her. She had to admit that her need to snuggle into the Flemings’ lives vastly exceeded their need for her shelter and patronage. Now that Vivian had regained so much of her strength, Els wondered when Finney’s independence or Vivian’s pride would send them back to the Westbury house.
She poured Finney a glass of the iced tea mixed with bitter orange juice that the pub would feature as long as the crop held.
“Good lobster catch today,” he said. “I sell it all to Cobb, thinkin’ you not here.” He sat down and took a gulp of the tea. “You can call him. Jason limin’ down there, he can bring some up.”
“Is Liz back too?”
He nodded. “Jason say Liz comin’ up for dinner tonight, bringin’ the Jammer crew.”
In the four months since she’d seen him, she’d tried to put Liz out of her mind, but there had been many days when she’d gazed out to sea imagining Iguana’s huge sail heading for Oualie. The prospect of seeing him raised her jitters a notch.
“I’ll surely need those lobsters, then,” she said. “We have a big family party from Golden Rock. It’s so bugger-all hard to plan, but maybe that’s to be expected until a place catches on. Or doesn’t.”
“We goin’ do fine once we get that new cooler,” Eulia said. “She teaching me the business, Daddy. Today we studyin’ financial planning. It gon’ take a lotta cookin’ to pay for all the stuff we got to buy. Even that old walk-in we can get from the Resort. They askin’ three thousand for it. US.”
“Better snatch it,” Finney said. “You get a new one, gorment grab most a’ that in duty before you get it down the wharf.”
“Jack’s got a cash flow problem,” Eulia said, rolling out the words like a schoolgirl testing new vocabulary. “I just tellin’ her she gotta axe Jason.”
“Miss not like ar we,” Finney said. “She can go to the bank.”
Maybe not, Els thought. “Eulia claims he’s an understanding lender,” she said.
“Understandin’ got nothin’ to do with it,” Finney said. “He got to know you honest, one. Then you mus’ convince him you got a sure plan for de money.” He drank the rest of his tea. “From time to time a lotta us cyan make it widout him. If he agree to help you, that make you local, fuh sure.”
Half an hour later, Jason pulled into the court, lifted Finney’s cooler from his truck bed, and said, “Lobsta fuh you tourists.” He carried the cooler into the kitchen and emerged with a beer, strolled to their table, and sat down.
“Is okay I take this, payment fuh the delivery?” he said.
“Fair enough,” Els said.
“You welcome.” He took a long pull on the beer.
“Els need axe you for a loan,” Eulia said.
“I need nothing of the kind.” Els gathered the pages.
Eulia jabbed a finger at the yellow pad. “You gon’ listen to your new minority partner?”
Jason’s eyebrow lifted over his sunglasses.
“I offered her a profit-sharing scheme to keep her from jumping ship back to the Resort,” Els said. Eulia shot Jason a look full of pride and mischief. Els refilled her glass even though the caffeine and sugar were already making her buzzy.
“You choose a perfect partner,” Jason said.
“If you doan tell he about the stuff we need, I do it myself,” Eulia said. “I ain’t cooking my tits off for nothin’.”
“We’ll manage,” Els said.
“We flat-ass broke,” Eulia said. “Worse.” She dropped to a whisper. “We ain’t got enough to pay the girls beyond Saturday, and I ain’t layin’ off my own cousin.”
Els slowly handed her calculations to Jason. “It took everything I had left to get us this far,” she said. “If we don’t get proper refrigeration and replace that relic of a cooker, Eulia can’t feed a full house. We should add a pavilion in the garden for extra tables and build a guest loo so Finney and Vivian can have their privacy back. I’ve done cost and revenue projections by activity—pub, gift shop, even weddings.”
Jason studied the pages while she finished her second glass of tea and poured a third.
“Forget it,” she said. “Give those back.”
“What the rest a’ you financial picture?” he asked.
“I said, give them back. I want nothing from you.”
“Then I got me a fool for a partner,” Eulia said. “Unless you thinking somebody gon’ give you big money for Missus Beatrice, them Haring squiggles, or the other weird pictures up there.”
Bananaquits ganged on the plate of brown sugar