The Winters(57)

“Actually, she told me not to say anything,” Louisa said, thankfully. “She begged me to stay out of it. I can’t understand why you’re so adamantly against the idea. It’s such a good one.”

“For Chrissakes, what can’t you understand?” Max hissed, his voice cracking. “I don’t want to hold my wedding in that filthy glass cage.”

“I was in there this morning. It won’t take much to prep it.”

“How the hell did you get in there?”

“I used to live here, remember?”

“I don’t go nosing around your house when you’re not around.”

“You don’t own half my house. Anyway, all we have to do by my estimation is tighten some panels, lay down a temporary floor, clean the glass, and air it out. The boys that did our pergola could get it done in a week.”

“Why do you care so much about where I hold my wedding?”

“Because I quite like her. And I’d like her to be happy here. Because I think she’s working wonders with Dani.”

“Ha! That tide could turn pretty swiftly.”

“You have so little faith in that girl.”

“I know her, Louisa.”

Footsteps echoed from the main staircase behind me—Dani making her way down to breakfast. Gathering myself, I walked into the kitchen at a quick clip.

“Louisa, what a nice surprise,” I said, smiling widely and phonily, rushing to kiss her cheek. “Good morning, Max.”

“Morning, my love. Coffee’s ready. I’m making scrambled.”

He was trying to conceal the dark mood their fight had put him in.

“What brings you here?” I asked Louisa while pouring my coffee. My hand was shaking.

“Oh, you know, I was in the neighborhood and all that.”

Dani came in holding Maggie, wearing shorts and a pair of green wellies with long yellow laces. “Look, Mags, a kitchen party,” she said, rubbing Maggie’s scruff on Max’s face.

“And she wasn’t invited,” he said.

“Don’t talk like that in front of Maggie, Daddy. I don’t want her to feel unwanted, too.”

“She is unwanted. By me. I’d like her gone by the wedding.”

“And to think he used to be such a nice little boy,” Louisa said, turning to me. “Max told me you and Dani found a dress. I’m so pleased.”

“I am, too,” I said, looking over at Dani. “And I was very grateful for the help.”

Dani shrugged. She was preparing Maggie’s slurry, heated up as I had shown her.

“It’s a cute dress,” Dani said. “It’s got this little sash—”

“Shh!” Louisa pointed at Max. “It’s supposed to be a surprise.”

Dani rolled her eyes, then placed the kitten on the floor next to the saucer. She began her little ritual of collecting components of her breakfast from all corners of the kitchen—spoon, blueberries, cereal, milk—into one mise-en-place on the island before assembling everything into a bowl like a mad scientist.

“By the way, Dani,” Louisa said. “I sent invitations to Claire and her parents, but there’s still time to add someone else.”

She was eating while standing, scrolling through her phone. “I don’t have any other friends.” She turned to address the kitten. “Just you, Boo.”

“Might help if you went to school,” Max said, “or anywhere beyond Asherley, for that matter.” He was buttering toast like he was angry at the bread.

No one could ignore the tension in the air.

“Well, Daddy, I am grounded,” she replied. “And anyway, I do go to a lot of places. I go to Claire’s. I go into town. I go to the city. I went to Paris with Auntie Louisa, didn’t I? And yesterday I went to New York with her,” she said, her thumb pointing towards me.

“Against my wishes,” Max said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “And you put her in a tricky spot, asking her to lie to me about that.”

Dani eyed me. “I didn’t ask her to lie,” she said. “I just asked her to omit some things. And did you?”

We locked eyes.

“I didn’t say anything to your dad that you hadn’t already told him, Dani.”

I don’t know if she believed me.

“Welp, good talk. I think I hear Adele driving up.”

She took her phone and her bowl and fled the kitchen. Maggie, transfixed by her bootstrap, was left with no choice but to chase her.

When she was well down the hall, Louisa spoke up.

“Why are you being such an asshole to your daughter?”

He took his coffee over to the window and looked out towards the barn. “When we move the last horses to Montauk, I’m going to ask the stables to take Gus on full time,” he said. “There won’t be much around here that a landscape company can’t handle. We don’t need anyone living on the property anymore.”

“Max, you can’t fire him for driving Dani around,” Louisa said. “What’s the boy going to say to her? No?”

“It’s more like a transfer. Besides, she’s sixteen soon and she’ll learn how to drive herself around.”

“I actually think it might be a good idea, too,” I said.