“And precocious?” Maia says.
Ayers laughs. “And precocious.”
Maia leans over into the bassinet to look more closely at her niece. She’s asleep, and her little bow of a mouth is making a sucking motion. Maia reaches out her pinkie, and baby Milly’s impossibly tiny hand grasps it.
“Just watch me,” Maia whispers. “I’ll show you how it’s done.”
Acknowledgments
I want to start by thanking my brother, Douglas Hilderbrand, who is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service and who provided all the weather details in the last section of this book based on his research of Hurricane Irma. He is also the inspiration for the character Dougie Clarence, the CBS weatherman who appears here and in my novel Winter Storms.
There is a real-life version of the Lovango Resort and Beach Club being built as I write this, and no one like Duncan Huntley has any part in it. The owners are my dear friends Mark and Gwenn Snider, who own the Nantucket Hotel and Resort and the Winnetu on Martha’s Vineyard. I’ve held my bucket-list weekends at both of their properties and we all hope that at some point in the near future, we can host a St. John bucket-list weekend on Lovango!
I have taken ten trips to St. John. Eight of these were my usual five-week writing-retreat visits, one was at Christmas, and my most recent trip there, in March of 2020, coincided with the outbreak of COVID-19. I ended up staying on St. John for seven weeks and “sheltered in paradise.” Over the course of these visits, I have made friends and acquaintances. I always say that the places we love are about people, and that is certainly true in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Thank you to Julie, Matt, and Shane Lasota; Beth and Jim Heskett of St. John Guest Suites; Bridgett and Jimmy Key of Palm Tree Charters; Captains Stephen Sloan and Kelly Quinn (no relation to “our” Kelley Quinn!) of Singing Dog Sailing Charters; Brian and Michelle Zehring of New Moon; Alex Ewald of La Tapa; Ryan Costanzo of Extra Virgin Bistro and 1864; Allison Gould of Sam and Jack’s; Hank and Karen Slodden; Sarah Swan; John Dickson from the Papaya Café and Bookstore; Dana Neil of Cruz Bay Watersports; Richard Baranowski of Lime Inn/Lime Out (who saved my son Maxx’s life, but that’s a story for another day); Karen Coffelt, head of school Liz Morrison, and all of the amazing teachers and staff at the Antilles School; Jorie Roberts; Meredith DeBusk from St. John Provisions; Sarah Bigelow, Peter Bettinger, Mattie Atkinson, Rhonda McCay, and Linda Beer (I told you I’d get you in!); and Heather Hearn Samelson of Pizza Pi VI. If I have forgotten any of you, it’s because I’m old, not because I don’t love and appreciate you.
A huge and special thank-you to Judy Clain, my new editor at Little, Brown, who took me in as an orphan and made me feel like her favorite child. She is brilliant, and this book owes her an enormous debt.
To my kids, Maxwell, Dawson, and Shelby: Everything, always, is for you.
For me, St. John is, above and beyond all else, about Timothy Field. The man has been setting up my towels, pouring my cocktails, and keeping the water from washing me (and my notebooks) away for years. I love you in Love City, HB. XOX
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About the Author
ELIN HILDERBRAND has been visiting St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, for five weeks every year since 2012, and in the spring of 2020, she “sheltered in paradise” there for seven weeks. She spends the rest of the year living in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and is the mother of three children. Troubles in Paradise is her twenty-sixth novel.
Also by Elin Hilderbrand
The Beach Club
Nantucket Nights
Summer People
The Blue Bistro
The Love Season
Barefoot
A Summer Affair
The Castaways
The Island
Silver Girl
Summerland
Beautiful Day
The Matchmaker
Winter Street
The Rumor
Winter Stroll
Here’s to Us
Winter Storms
The Identicals
Winter Solstice
The Perfect Couple
Winter in Paradise
Summer of ’69
What Happens in Paradise
28 Summers
