The High Season(99)

Adeline moved faster than Ruthie imagined she could. She placed herself between them and shoved Lucas back. He knocked into the table and a cup turned over, spilling coffee before rolling off and smashing on the floor.

“What the fuck!” Lucas yelled. “Don’t push me!”

He sounded like a child. Adeline took a step toward him, her palm out. “This will not happen. You will not threaten, you will not raise your voice, you will shut up and listen to me.”

“I don’t listen to you,” Lucas said, but he looked unnerved as he leaned against the counter and crossed his arms.

“The law says there’s no such thing as consent at Jem’s age,” Ruthie said. “Just so you know.”

“This is ridiculous,” Lucas said. “I just want you to know, Ruthie, she pursued me, okay?”

“Yes, I’m sure you’re completely innocent, as usual,” Adeline said, rubbing her forehead. “And in another minute, you’ll tell me you’re the victim.”

“Here we go again.” Lucas went to a thermos on the counter. He got another mug and poured himself coffee. “All the things that are wrong with me, right? Maybe you should have given one fucking shit about how I was raised. How I was shafted. He tied me to you, knowing that we hated each other.” He held his cup in two hands and sipped.

“I don’t hate you, Lucas,” Adeline said. “I never hated you. I tried. You got a bad deal, and you made it worse.” She rubbed her mouth. “How am I going to tell Michael?” she asked, but she wasn’t asking them.

“It all comes back to you, doesn’t it. Who cares.” Lucas threw his coffee in the sink. “This is slop. I’m going out.”

“You are not going out until we talk about this!”

“I’m sick of being blamed!” He stomped into his room, pulled on a shirt, grabbed his keys, slammed the door.

Adeline lowered herself into a chair. “My fault,” she said. “I should have seen something. I didn’t see a thing. They weren’t together in this house, I promise you.”

    “It was only the one time. And I didn’t see it, either,” Ruthie said. “I think the fault is mine.”

Adeline pressed her fingers against her eyes. “When are you going to tell Michael? Should we tell him together?”

Ruthie took Lucas’s cup and rinsed it. It was one of her favorites, the one she saved for her tea. She’d never drink out of it again. She dried her hands and sat across from Adeline.

“I’m not going to tell him.”

“What?”

She folded the dish towel and pushed it away. “Do you remember your first time?”

“What?”

“Was it lovely? Was it meaningful? Was it your true love? Do you cherish the memory?”

Adeline laughed. “Hardly. It was the guy my parents hired to paint the house. A college student. He wore white overalls with no shirt underneath. I was dazzled. He went back to school and never called me again. We did it in his truck. I was sixteen.”

“Mine was my high school boyfriend,” Ruthie said. “I held him off for months and then we did it at a party. It lasted about a minute. He broke up with me a week later.”

“Girls.” Adeline shook her head. “What we get through.”

“It’s just part of our story,” Ruthie said. “Look, I’m trying to figure out the right thing. I’m trying to see around corners. My daughter lost her virginity to a twenty-three-year-old. How she’ll deal with that over time is something I can’t see. There are so many traumas we absorb and then we just get on with it. We didn’t tell our fathers about how we lost our virginity, did we? Or our mothers? I don’t want to paper over this, but I know that if Mike knew, he’d never be able to look at Lucas again.”

“I know,” Adeline said. “I’m not sure I can, either.”

“Or even hear his name. Ever. And that would be the end for you both.”

    Adeline opened her mouth, but then closed it. “But I can’t keep a secret from him.”

“I know, it feels terrible. For me, too. Mike and I are still partners when it comes to Jem. She doesn’t want him to know, she’s adamant. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I agree.”

“Why would you do that for us?”

“I’m doing it for Jem,” Ruthie said. She felt impatient. Adeline was staring at her hands. Keep up, she wanted to say. But then she’d had hours to think about this, to plan. “Having her father know would bring it home in a fresh way. Seeing Mike would be painful and embarrassing for her, and for a long time. If the two of us can keep this secret, I think we have a shot at keeping things okay for Jem. But Lucas can’t ever be in the same room with her again.”

There was a pause. “I can do that,” Adeline said.

“Send him away.”

“I can do that, too.” Adeline nodded. “It’s time. We’ve come to the end of the road.”

“And buy this house.”

Adeline lifted her head, startled. “What does that have to do with Lucas?”

“It has to do with Jem. I think it will be good for her to still have this place to come to.”