The High Season(84)

    Doe sat up. “What? How?”

“I don’t know, he cleaned out his mother’s storage unit? Found it.” Lark twisted her wet hair into a bun on top of her head while she hunted for pins. “Pretty big news. I mean, it will be, once it gets out. Lucas is totally into it while trying to act all Oh, this old thing. And get this—it’s a portrait of Adeline. Looking horrific, I must say. Naturally Daddy is thrilled. No way he won’t buy it, it’s a steal. He told me Lucas is asking ten million but Daddy is going to offer eight. Even if something’s a steal, you don’t meet the price if you don’t have to. He says. He still thirsts for revenge on Adeline. He has it on approval right now. So listen to this. Daddy wants me to hang it at the Belfry for the party! Right in that front gallery so that everyone can see it. I mean, it’s a lawn party so nobody will be inside except for staff and caterers. But we’ll light it so it will practically glow. If Adeline comes she’ll have a fit. Not that I want that, but Daddy does. So what can I do.”

“Say no?” Doe suggested, but Lark had disappeared into the closet again.

She came out in a pair of sandals, frowned, and kicked them off. “Daddy is delusional if he thinks that Adeline will come tonight.” She ducked into the closet again and came out wearing fawn-colored boots. “I think this is the end of our families meeting, like, ever again. I liked Adeline fine, but what a relief. No more Lucas for me. Hale Channing swears he stole a pair of Buccellati cuff links from him.”

Doe swung her legs out of bed. Her brain was buzzing. “His mother’s storage unit? How come he didn’t find it before?”

“No idea. Gotta run, angel.” Lark pressed herself against her face and nuzzled her like a sweet pony. “Do you know what, you,” she murmured. “I think this director thing is going to work out. And we’ll be together every day. I’ve never, ever been so happy.”

And then she was gone in a moment, before Doe’s skin had even cooled. The way she did. The way she would do for good one day.

Lucas had crammed everything in the trunk of his car, hadn’t he? Thrown it all away? Unless he’d lied to her? But she’d seen it, she’d seen the empty storage unit, she’d seen him close out the account.

    Lucas discovered a painting worth ten million? It didn’t make sense. What would Shari say?

If an asshole sells you a story, why be surprised if it smells?





51


RUTHIE HAD NO choice but to pass the Belfry; it was on the main road, right before the causeway. She tried not to look, but how could she not, when there was a giant inflatable hyena bobbing in the breeze on the front lawn? She pulled over.

Off in the distance she could see Dodge directing his crew. Various piles of plasticky material were laid out on the lawn. She could see Lark Mantis, in shorts and a T-shirt and boots (Boots? It was ninety-two degrees), pointing and suggesting, placing the inflatable sculptures. Ruthie had heard about them, of course. In the back courtyard a bouncy castle looked like a giant, cheerful prison.

Lark was crowding the sculptures. She wasn’t allowing for the right sight lines. Ruthie watched as Dodge walked over, talked to her with one hand on her shoulder. She could tell from here that he was frustrated.

She was about to drive away when she glimpsed a vivid flash of familiar blue.

She slid out of the car. She walked up the lawn unnoticed. She climbed over the knee-high wall.

    One small painting in the gallery, blazing clear blue.

It seemed impossible, but there it was.

Lucas. That bastard. That spoiled, careless idiot.

What the fuck was he thinking?

She walked back to her car, feeling weightless and doomed, a passenger in a plane in a long stall.





52


DOE ENDED UP driving into the village of East Hampton. She bought an iced coffee and sipped it, window-shopping down Newtown Lane. So many thin white people. So many pairs of white jeans, so many straw hats.

She saw Lucas ahead, jingling his keys, looking at his phone. He hadn’t seen her. She had time to reverse direction but she didn’t. She counted off a couple of slow breaths.

“Look who’s here,” he said. “You meeting your mom for a little lunch? Is there a Hooters I don’t know about?”

“Just killing time before Lark’s party. Sorry she forgot to invite you. I hope you weren’t too humiliated.”

“I heard about you two. Like it will last.” He reached for her wrist and pushed up the long sleeve of her linen shirt, and she stepped back.

“Relax, I just wanted to see if you were wearing a watch.” He studied her over his sunglasses. “Because I’m missing mine. It disappeared after the storm.”

Doe shrugged. “Did you check under the dresser?”

“I saw you looking at it.”

    “Are you sure it wasn’t Hale’s? I hear he’s missing some cuff links. Maybe it’s a set.”

“Fuck you, I got it for my graduation.”

“Right. Do you know, the entire time we hung out, all you did was complain about not having enough money? Do you remember that date we had back in July? After the Montauk party?”

She couldn’t see his eyes behind his sunglasses. He stepped back and raised both hands in a what the hell gesture. “Am I supposed to remember every stupid date we had? Please, I’d like to forget I ever asked you out.”