Never Have I Ever(32)

Her face didn’t change. Her body stayed in the same shape, legs crossed, leaning back, one arm draped comfortably along the sofa. Even so I felt a shift in her. A flex of muscles tightening under her skin.

“When did you talk to Luca about diving?” she asked.

“All week,” I said. “Every day he has another question.”

Her arm dropped, and she leaned slightly forward. “Luca was here?”

She didn’t know her kid was at my house? Not that I minded him anymore. He didn’t seem to have romantic or even sexual designs on Maddy, though I worried about how gone she was on him. He was charming, and twice I’d invited him to stay for dinner, though he hadn’t taken me up on it.

“Yes. He comes home with Madison after school.”

“Luca homeschools,” Roux said, tight. That surprised me. Homeschooling didn’t seem to fit Roux’s demographic, but then what did? Her brand-new shiny car didn’t match her peeling rental house, her expensive clothes and her equally expensive face did not belong in our neighborhood. She got up and walked away from me, over to the picture window, picking her way through Oliver’s mess. He was still pulling toys off the shelf, examining or mouthing or shaking each before dropping it, babbling quietly to himself.

“Do you work afternoons?” I asked, curious how she hadn’t known her kid was at my place in those hours.

She shook her head, impatient. “That’s when I’m at the gym.”

She’s at the gym two-plus hours a day? I thought, but looking at her body silhouetted against the picture window, I believed it.

“Maybe he just didn’t mention it. It’s all pretty innocent,” I said, very offhand and dismissive. I liked it, this reversal, me cool and her a little on edge, but at the same time I hoped I hadn’t landed him in hot water. I’d come to like the kid. “I’ve kept a close eye on them, believe me.”

“He’s hanging with your stepdaughter,” Roux said, almost a question.

That made me laugh. “Of course. He’s not here to learn how to keep his colors bright and his whites from getting dingy.”

She smiled. “I suppose not. That boy can’t even get his socks into the hamper.”

Her tone was very light, but I could still see tension in the lines of her body as she looked around the room. I liked it. I resisted the urge to get up, move a little closer. Her gaze settled on a family picture on a shelf too high for Oliver to reach: me, Maddy, and Davis, dressed for Easter service. Oliver was in the picture, too, a huge, round presence belling out the skirt of my lavender maternity dress. She went over and picked it up, studying us, seemingly unaware of the baby playing at her feet.

“This is her? Maggie? The step?”

“Maddy,” I said. “Yes.”

She cocked an eyebrow at me, looking from the picture to my face. “Hardly Luca’s speed.”

I felt my whole body flush with instant anger. And yet—hadn’t I thought the same thing? I hadn’t phrased it in her blunt, dismissive way, but I’d thought it.

“They’re just friends,” I said, my voice gone cool.

“Sure,” she said. She set the photo down a little too hard and turned back. “I’m not really happy with this visit, Amy. I told you to come see me, and you didn’t, so I had to come to you. Now I’m here for fifteen minutes before it occurs to you to say, ‘Oh, by the way, your kid is sneaking over here.’”

Much as I liked pushing her buttons, this was about her child. I’d had the same reaction when Maddy scammed me and rode to school with Luca. I had to treat this seriously.

“I would have said something if I’d thought Luca was sneaking. Mother code,” I told her, and I meant it.

“Sure,” Roux said, exactly the way she’d said it when I’d asked if she’d read The House of Mirth. Agreeing, even though both people in the conversation knew that it was bull.

“I would have,” I insisted. “But he’s what, sixteen? It’s fine. He and Maddy eat popcorn and talk about tastemakers, which is apparently a real job now, and listen to music. Nobody’s drinking, nobody’s high, nobody’s getting pregnant. Not on my watch.”

Roux’s arms were crossed, but she gave me a grudging nod. “I told him not to get embedded. I’m here on business, and I don’t want weeks of moping when it’s time to go.”

Now we actually were on common ground; I understood moody teenagers. But more important, it sounded as if Roux would not be around long. “Oh, is your work short-term?”

“I hope so,” she said, which could mean anything.

I asked, “What do you do anyway?”

No one in the neighborhood seemed to know. According to Char, who had of course followed up, Roux’d been vague at book club. She’d said something about web design to Lisa and hinted to Sheridan that she got big-time alimony. Tess had come away with a vague impression that Roux was some kind of artist, maybe a dancer.

“I don’t want to talk about my job,” Roux said dismissively. “It’s not going very well, to be honest.”

“Bah!” Oliver said, disgusted. All the toys were off the shelf now. I got up and came over, since Roux apparently wasn’t going to help him. She got out of the way as I approached, walking back toward the sofa.