Never Have I Ever(74)

“You’re lucky your mom already dives. You’ll have a lot of opportunities to get out there, huh?” He nodded. “Does your dad dive, too?”

I was watching him intently, so I caught the way his body froze. Just for a second, but it was a telling second.

“No,” he said. And that was all.

“That’s a shame,” I pressed. “Maybe you could get him into it.”

His face flushed, soft red coming into his cheeks, and then he jerked one shoulder up in a shrug. “I don’t see my dad.”

He looked so unhappy, and I felt a crushing shame. But at the same time, my spine tingled. I was onto something.

“I’m sorry,” I said, and I wasn’t sure what I was apologizing for. “Are your parents divorced?”

Luca swallowed. His gaze was direct and sincere. “Ms. Whey? My dad—he’s not a good person. I don’t talk about him. Like, ever.”

“Sure, sure. I’m sorry,” I said, backing off. Given Roux’s occupation, I’d thought the odds were she was running from a warrant. But now I wondered if Luca’s father was a more likely reason for her to have hit the road. “Not a good person” could mean a lot of things. I had more questions, but I let him go back to his studying and his sandwich. I genuinely didn’t want to hurt the kid. Also, the piece of me that was playing didn’t want to tip my hand. Roux would return any minute, and she’d notice if Luca was distressed. Both these reasons existed, but I hoped my gentler, kinder motivation was stronger than the manipulative stir I felt down in my deeps.

I was innocently feeding Oliver again when Roux let herself back in. Luca was engrossed in his book, his thick, perfectly shaped eyebrows furrowed.

At two-thirty Maddy slammed the front door wide and came stomping down the hall. She threw open the swinging door.

“Monster! Luca! Pool o’clock!”

“Hush! Two more pages,” Luca said.

She blew him a raspberry, which made Oliver start blowing raspberries back. I was on the floor with him, helping him bang around the wooden pieces of his My First Puzzle.

“Hurry up, already!” Maddy slid onto the stool beside Luca, her shoulder touching his, peering down at the book, even though she knew it backward and forward.

Roux, silent on my sofa, watched Maddy almost as intently as I watched Luca. Both of us mothers were clocking how he reacted to her touch. The answer was not at all. Maddy might as well have been a piece of furniture, but Roux’s eyebrows knit together, uncontrolled, as if she had forgotten she owned eyebrows for a moment. I’d thought it might be different with boys, this worry over their crushes. Apparently it wasn’t. Luca had a heart, unlike his mother. She was out to guard it.

Maddy, not getting any of his attention, climbed off the stool and dropped to her knees on the carpet by me. She hurled her arms around my neck and gave my cheek a resounding smack. The sound made Oliver laugh so hard she did it three more times, then zerberted his own cheek while he grabbed big handfuls of her curls and yanked joyfully, crowing.

Mad smiled up at me. “How much longer? God, I’ve missed diving. We haven’t gone much since Oliver. I mean, I love him and all.” She touched the tip of his nose and told him, “I love you, fat potato,” before turning her eyes back to mine. “But I miss us. Doing our thing. You know?”

From the corner I could feel Roux’s eyes on us, still.

“I do know,” I said. Davis and Maddy were blood, and Davis and I were married. Maddy and I, we were divers, and I hadn’t realized that as bad as we’d been missing getting under, we had also both been missing the thing that made the two of us a pair. I ruffled her curls. “I’m sorry, kiddo. I’ve been lost in baby clouds. But I promise, once we get through this, you and I will start diving on the regular again.”

“Get through what?” Maddy asked, and I shook my head a little, laughing.

“Just . . . you know, the class,” I said.

“You’re a good Monster,” Maddy said, and I felt my eyes prick with tears.

“Done!” Luca said, smacking the book shut.

“Good. You can take the DVD home and watch the last section tonight. We’ll do the test in the morning, right before your first open-water dive, okay?” I told him, so conscious of being watched. “Mads? Go get on your swimsuit. Luca, you too.”

“Want me to jog fat potato baby down to Mrs. Fenton?” she asked, poking Oliver’s belly to make him laugh.

“We’ll drop him on the way. Run get changed.”

Luca’s swimsuit was hanging up with his wet suit in the downstairs guest bath. He went in as Maddy went bounding upstairs. The rest of the equipment was already loaded in the Subaru, ready to be driven down to Tate’s.

I flipped through Luca’s book, making sure he’d done the practice quizzes. I did not look at Roux. I kept still, so my body wouldn’t telegraph anything. It was time to put the plan I’d woken up with into action. If today was like yesterday. If she went to the gym. But she stayed on the sofa.

“She really loves you,” Roux said.

“Of course she does,” I said, surprised out of my pretend.

Roux’s eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t always work that way. Not with steps.”

“Not always,” I said, wondering if a bad step was the reason she was running. While she was in a talking mood, I asked, “Is your husband Luca’s step?”