The High Season(98)

“Believe me, compared with that? This is nothing,” Doe said. Taking the coffee, smiling into the cup.





64


THE BREEZE OFF the water brought a green, loamy smell Ruthie’s way. She pictured peeling emotion off her nerves like bark off a tree, leaving her a pale column of oak. Like one of those mortals who got changed into a tree. She’d like to be a tree.

She felt calm.

First, Adeline.

Mike was with Jem, helping her pack. She had a little time.

Adeline opened the door. She didn’t look glowy and perfect. She looked like an aging beautiful woman with troubles, surrounded by cartons and suitcases. She said hello in a distracted way. “Come in, I’m sorry, I promise this will all be organized in some fashion. I know you and Jem are moving back in this week.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Ruthie stopped short. The painting was on the floor, leaning against a wall.

“Joe Bloom brought it over this morning,” Adeline said, waving at it. “Apparently Lucas found it in a storage unit.”

“I know, I saw it at the Belfry last night.”

    “Well, Daniel can’t buy it.” Adeline gave it a quick glance. “I hate it.”

“Well, it’s not…flattering.”

“It’s not that. It’s a stupid thing. Embarrassing to admit, really. I think you’ll understand because you knew Peter so well. How he was with women.”

“Well, sure.”

“The thing is, if he turned his attention to you, he sort of…enshrined you. And you felt you were…special among women. If you were vulnerable to that, he had you. And I was vulnerable. Now I know, of course, how dumb I was. I loved him. But this…that he could paint me this way. Well. I deserve it. It’s my fault for wanting to be first among women.” She looked at the painting. “Jeez.”

“We all want to be first,” Ruthie said.

Adeline wrung her hands. Ruthie had never seen anyone do that before, and now she understood the term, watching Adeline’s slender, well-kept hands squeezing, rotating, squeezing.

“Lucas had sex with Jem last night,” Ruthie said.

Adeline gasped. “What? When?”

“In the bouncy castle.”

“Oh, my God. How is she?”

“She’s okay. She’s shook up, of course.”

“He didn’t—”

“No. Completely consensual. If there’s such a thing with a fifteen-year-old. Which there isn’t.”

Adeline sat down slowly. “No, there isn’t, is there.” Her hands were still, and she stared at them, clasped in her lap in a prayer position. “What are we going to do?”

“We have to talk to him.”

“I’ll get him.”

“Maybe first we should—” Ruthie started, but Adeline was already moving fast, her bare feet thudding against the hardwood.

She rapped on his door. “Lucas. Lucas.”

“I’m not awake.”

    “Come out here. Now. It’s important.”

“Christ, you’re kidding me.”

“Now!” Adeline returned to the kitchen. They said nothing, just stood and waited in silence. In a few moments they heard the bedroom door open.

Lucas entered the room in a pair of shorts and no shirt, his hair messy. “Ruthie,” he said. “What are you doing here? Is there coffee?”

“Apparently you had sex with Jem last night,” Adeline said.

Lucas said nothing, but his gaze went from Adeline to Ruthie.

“Is that what she says?”

“So it’s true. Terrific. This is just what I need. Lucas!”

“Let’s forget about the fact that I was almost killed last night!” Lucas crossed to the cupboard and took out a cup. “That bouncy castle thing blew like fifty feet in the air!”

“And you jumped out and left Jem in it,” Ruthie said. “And Doe.”

“I told them I’d go first,” Lucas said. “It seemed safer.”

“Oh, please,” Ruthie said.

“I was going to hold it down!”

“Lucas! Let’s get back to the sex part,” Adeline said.

“He’s been pursuing Jem all summer,” Ruthie said. “Or maybe I should say grooming her.”

Lucas slammed down the cup. “Oh, here we go.”

“She’s fifteen!” Adeline cried.

“I didn’t know that.”

“Of course you did,” Adeline said. “Don’t lie to me!”

“I didn’t at first. So there’s an age difference. Look at you and your handyman!” Lucas smirked. “At least I kept it in the family.”

Ruthie breathed out her nose. She was going to stay calm because it was the way to win. “If we want to get technical, it’s rape,” Ruthie said.

Adeline closed her eyes.

“So what are you going to do, call the police, Ruthie?” Lucas asked. “I’d think twice about that if I were you.”

    “I have thought about it,” Ruthie said. “A lot. Believe me.”

Suddenly he lunged over the counter. “You fucking bitch!”