His first instinct is to be a jerk about it. But honestly, he doesn’t want to do battle with Cash over Ayers. He doesn’t want to do battle with Cash over anything. He finds he’s actually psyched—and relieved—that Cash is here. Baker talked a big game about moving down here but he doesn’t know a soul except for Ayers and, sort of, Huck, and he has nothing in the way of a support system. He can continue to day-trade and he can accept Anna’s offer of financial help, but he needs to see if life here is sustainable—school for Floyd, some kind of job for himself that’s part-time with flexible hours that will get him out of the house and into the community. He could even volunteer.

“How’s Maia doing?” Baker asks. “Was she…okay seeing you?”

“Surprisingly, yes,” Cash says. “She seems great. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she had a moment or two where she almost broke down—”

“I’m going down the slide,” Floyd announces. “Uncle Cash, are you getting in?”

Cash jumps into the pool and swims over to a spot where he can watch Floyd go down the slide to the lower pool.

“But, I mean, generally, she was okay. She’s a smart kid. She was teaching me about the island’s history and the plants and trees—”

“Maybe I’ll apply for a job with the National Park Service,” Baker says.

Cash gives him an incredulous look and Baker thinks it’s probably justified. Being a park ranger must require years in forestry school or some such.

“And before you ask, Ayers is still with Mick. I saw them together at La Tapa last night.”

“He’ll cheat on her again,” Baker says.

“Agreed,” Cash says. He holds Baker’s gaze for a second and Baker can tell they’re thinking the same thing: Once Mick cheats on her again, it’ll be brother against brother.

Or maybe not, Baker thinks. Maybe Cash will realize that he and Ayers should just remain friends. Maybe Cash will fall for one of the young, single women who climb aboard Treasure Island.

“What’s up with Anna?” Cash asks.

“She and Louisa have accepted positions at the Cleveland Clinic,” Baker says. “They’re moving to Shaker Heights. Floyd will go there holidays and summers. That’s why we decided to move down here. There’s nothing tethering us to Houston anymore.”

“Great minds think alike,” Cash says. “I was going to head to Breck to ski but it’s too late in the season for me to get a decent job. Then Ayers told me about Treasure Island. I start my lifesaving classes on Monday.”

Baker is surprised that Cash is so organized; it sounds like he’s thought something through for once. Objectively, Baker has to admit that Cash would be great as a first mate on a tour boat. When Baker and Anna visited Cash in Breckenridge, they had a chance to see him in action as a group ski instructor and they had both been impressed. Cash was friendly, engaging, funny, kind, and patient—his patience had been astonishing, in fact.