The High Season(62)

Now Doe watched Daniel as he smiled and raised his cup. Did he approve? Or did he want something? His gaze…she couldn’t figure it out, the way he looked at her. Not the dry slithering gaze of Ron back in Florida, but not without assessment.

    “Beautiful morning,” he said. “You’re up early.”

Doe nodded. “Summers are busy.”

“I admire industry. My daughter will stumble down at eleven,” he said. “She’s worthless. Don’t give me that look, I know, I sound harsh. That’s the trouble with honesty.” Daniel leaned against Doe’s car. “She doesn’t try.”

“Is that it? That she doesn’t try? That’s her problem?”

“You’ll understand the whole continuum one day. Her mother is worthless, too, with her pretend job. Medicated and nuts and married to an asshole. I had to take over. Look, I financed Lark’s business for three years and watched her drive it into the ground. Do you know what they called her in the press? ‘Flower girl Lark Mantis.’ Flower girl! My assistant showed me some Instagram feed, it’s full of her just standing at parties. Now they call her Luminous Lark. Jesus. She has a hashtag. It’s embarrassing.”

Doe leaned against the car because her legs felt weak. This conversation was now straying into her territory. He was talking about seekrit-hamptons. She did what she usually did when forced into an uncomfortable conversation, repeated back what Daniel said. “She’s embarrassing you.”

“She’s embarrassing herself, and she doesn’t seem to care.”

“She doesn’t seem to.”

“Stop repeating what I say, I’m on to that trick,” Daniel said. “So what is this thing with you and my daughter? A fling or a thing? Okay, don’t answer. I could see it last night, you two are in deep, even if you don’t know it. Your generation with your fluid sexuality, you don’t need my approval or not, she’s an adult, you too, I get that. But I also think you might be good for her. I noticed the wine trick last night, by the way.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Certainly an improvement on Lucas. He encouraged her faults. So work with me here.”

    “Okay,” Doe said. “You want me to help you. Am I right?”

“What’s it like on the North Fork? Nobody stays here in the fall and winter.”

“Yeah, the locals only come alive when you’re here to crank the keys in our backs. When you leave we just slump over until Memorial Day.”

“I don’t feel bad about being wealthy, all right? What am I if I can’t use those things for my kid? She went to Brown, she went to Yale. She’s had every opportunity to rise. But every time I set up a meeting, she drifts away.”

“She doesn’t want to work for anybody,” Doe said.

“What is she, a five-year-old who wants to be an astronaut? You’ve got to work for somebody,” he said. “Even I work for somebody. I work for the deal. And who said she was good at being a boss? She was a terrible boss.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Doe said.

Daniel squinted at her. “And you know this because?”

“The way she talks about the farm,” Doe said. “She had their loyalty. They’re still in touch with her, you know that? Not because they want something, either. They’re still trying to make a go of it.”

“I know, she talked me into giving them seed money to take it over,” Daniel said. “Seed money for a farm.” He snorted.

“She needed a financial manager,” Doe said. “She needed someone who knows how to run things. What she’s good at is being a figurehead. That’s not nothing.”

“That is nothing.”

She waved her phone at him. “She’s Insta-famous. Those pictures your assistant showed you? She’s in all those photos not just because she’s photogenic. She’s an influencer. People look to her for trends. They’re not just looking at her. That dress she wore last night will sell out at Net-a-Porter by the end of the day. They weren’t taking a picture of you outside the restaurant. It was her.”

“That’s not an achievement.”

“Are you kidding me? It’s a profession!”

    “It’s a con, I promise you.”

“I’m just saying, she could be a change agent.”

“I’m not even sure what that is. Why do I feel there’s something wrong with it?”

“Because you’re old.”

His eyes went flat. That was it, that was his weakness. She’d found it, and it turned out to be something so boring! Irrelevancy! The fear of every white man in his sixties with money and power. He almost disappointed her.

“I’m just saying she needs a platform,” she mumbled.

“Oh, Jesus, you kids. She doesn’t need a platform, she needs a job.” Daniel looked at her carefully. “You seem to have a lot of confidence. What did your father do? Where did you go to school?”

“Reed.”

“You grew up out there?”

“Florida. Miami.”

“Nobody grows up in Florida. Or if they do, they stay there.”

“Are you interviewing me now?”