Never Have I Ever(76)

“Always,” he said.

She saw herself out.

“You could have waited until we got to the pool. That can’t be comfortable,” I said to Luca.

“I know,” he said, sheepish, pulling at the wrist. He did look good in it.

Behind Luca I could see his jeans and T-shirt in a crumpled heap on the bathroom rug. Typical teen boy, thank God. Here was my chance.

I said to Maddy, “Let me run to the restroom and we can go. Watch the baby?”

I stepped into the guest bath. Once the door was closed, I leaned down and picked up Luca’s wadded clothes. I folded the T-shirt neatly and set it on the counter. Then I picked up the jeans and ran my hands around the pockets.

He had a wallet in the back one. I took it out and flipped it open. A crisp twenty in the money pocket. No credit card, no insurance card, but a Maryland driver’s license. I didn’t know enough about that state to know how real it looked. It couldn’t be real, though, because the name on it was Luca Roux. I put it back and checked the front pockets.

I found Luca’s key ring. It was a lightweight metal bull’s face, goofy and cartoonish. Probably something from a meme I was too old to get or care about. A single key dangled from the ring in the bull’s nose. No car key. So Roux hadn’t given him free access to the purring red monster she’d jacked from Boyce, which either represented a little bit of responsible parenting or she had control issues.

I slipped the bull in my pocket, then stacked all of Luca’s clothes except his T-shirt neatly by the sink. I flushed the toilet for cover and took the T-shirt out with me.

“Hey, kids? I have bad news. I just realized we’re short a couple of air tanks.”

“Oh, man!” Maddy said. “I can’t go? I mean, I know it’s just the pool, but . . .”

“We don’t even have enough for me. I was counting on the nitrox upstairs, but I burned that on the morning dive I did the other day. It’s no big deal, I’ll run pick up some more. Can you keep Oliver? You and Luca can watch the last video.” I handed Luca his T-shirt. “Take the wet suit off so you don’t swelter. I’ll be gone half an hour, forty-five minutes tops.”

“Sure,” Mad said. She reached one easy hand out to the back of Luca’s suit, pulling the drawstring to undo his zipper. Her eyes lingered on the bare skin of his back.

“And, Mads, let Luca pay attention to the video, okay? You watch the baby,” I said.

“I will,” she said, too offhand for my liking.

“He needs to know this stuff so he can dive safely,” I told her, stern. I didn’t like leaving them alone. Not with the way she looked at him and all the ways he did not look at her. I didn’t want her doing things that would mean the world to her and be nothing more than opportunity and hormones for him. He was a nice kid, but he was still a teenager.

Mad was grinning. “You’re so mommitty sometimes.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said. Oliver was yawning, but I hoped his nap would hold off until I returned. He’d make a pretty good chaperone. Since Oliver’s arrival Davis and I had learned firsthand how excellent babies were at preventing or at least interrupting sex.

Luca had struggled the rest of the way out of the wet suit, and Mad’s eyes slid sideways at his bare chest, lean and pale and smoothly muscled. He was oblivious, pulling his T-shirt on over his swimming trunks, but it didn’t set my mind wholly at ease. I’d stolen glances at Tig just like that a thousand times without him ever noticing. Until the night he did.

I went out through the garage, even though I wasn’t going to take my car. They were already chattering, wrapped up in the idea of the dive and each other. I checked my watch. Roux had left a good twenty minutes ago. By now she would have had time to change and leave. She was usually at the gym until after five. Or at least that was when Luca headed home.

I slipped out the garage’s side door, quick and quiet. I had less than an hour to break in and seek out Roux’s real and secret name. There was power in it, or she wouldn’t keep it hidden; I was going to find it.

I would find it even if I had to level the Sprite House to the ground.





14




On my way to Roux’s, I passed Tate’s good friend Lavonda out walking her big collie mix. We exchanged cool hellos. Inside, my stomach felt sour and hot, almost boiling, but long before I saw her, I was walking easy, hands swinging as if I hadn’t a care in the world. I didn’t even have to manufacture a smile for her; I had one ready-made, waiting for whoever needed it. She went right on by, though Lavonda could smell drama or distress from fifty paces. She lived for it, in fact, but she hadn’t smelled it coming off me.

I was getting better and better at this. I had always been good at it. My body had lied for me for years now, making itself regular and relaxed with Char. I’d even taught it to lie to me. The only difference was now I understood what I was doing.

I wasn’t sure that was a good thing.

I didn’t see anyone outside when I got to the cul-de-sac, and the red car was gone. I let myself in with Luca’s key. Here was the same ugly den with its sad rental furniture, the Picasso still leaned on the mantel. The laptop sat open on the coffee table, but the screen was dark. Roux had claimed that it held only Luca’s games and schoolwork, but Roux lied. It might be chock-full of her secrets. I didn’t have the password, though, so I ignored it. There was already too much house and too little time. I had to think like Roux, then search smart instead of thorough.