Glow (Glimmer and Glow #2)(80)
Brooke was totally unmasked. She stood there, all traces of smugness and superiority vanished, her expression open, unguarded, and undone. Her tears had smeared mascara onto her cheeks. Alice hastened to pull some napkins from the dispenser. She handed them to Brooke.
“Here,” Alice said uncomfortably. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“You didn’t have to say that about Judith,” Brooke sniffed, wiping her cheeks. “Everyone at camp knows how much Judith defied you at first. It was sort of . . . well, entertaining to watch, to be honest,” she added a little regretfully. “I thought she was going to kick your ass a few times.”
“Me, too,” Alice admitted.
Brooke swallowed thickly. “And you brought her around completely. She adores you now.”
“Oh God, no,” Alice insisted emphatically. “Judith worships no man or woman. She prefers to be on the adored end of things.”
Brooke smiled shakily. Another tear fell down her cheek and she wiped it away quickly. “There’s nothing wrong with a woman knowing what she wants.”
“No. I guess there’s not.”
An awkward silence fell.
“Well . . .” Brooke inhaled and wiped her cheeks one final time. Alice could almost see her willfully knitting together her fraying ends. Not for the first time, she admired Brooke. Maybe they’d never be the best of friends, but Thad had been right about one thing: Brooke had her moments.
“I’m sorry for jumping all over you like that,” Brooke said briskly, tossing the napkins. She met Alice’s stare levelly. “I panicked for a few minutes when I saw the photos and heard the rumor about how much the managers admired the Red Team’s stunt.”
“I don’t think you have any reason to panic.”
“I still think there’s a good chance we’ll beat you tonight,” Brooke said, her chin tilting up.
“Maybe. I’ll be fine with that, as long as my kids feel okay about themselves. It might be time for them to deal with some disappointment, anyway. They’re getting a little cocky with all their wins,” Alice said, suppressing a smile and not succeeding.
“Imagine that,” Brooke said, her arch look reminding Alice of the Brooke of old. But then she gave Alice a small, genuine-seeming smile before she turned away.
Brooke was gone before Alice realized that neither of them had mentioned Thad. Alice was glad he hadn’t come up. Maybe both of them had realized intuitively that Thad was too weighty of a topic to withstand their unexpected, delicate truce.
*
THAT night at the bonfire, her kids were flying high. The entire camp was buzzing with the word of Judith, Jill, and Noble D’s exploit at Camp Wildwood. Terrance was telling anyone who would listen that Judith, Jill, and D were the chosen emissaries from the Red Team because they were three of the more upstanding, rule-abiding kids, and therefore under the night supervisor’s radar. He assured people that the entire team was involved in the venture, though, and had agreed on the three campers to represent them.
“We all chipped in for the pizza, and it was my idea to tie the Red Team’s flag around the goat’s neck,” Alice overheard Terrance bragging to the Gold Team’s student leader as darkness fell and a couple managers started to shout for them to take their seats.
Alice started to sit down on the beach between Judith and Matt Dinorio when someone spoke from behind her.
“Alice? A word please before things officially get started.”
Alice noticed Judith’s concerned expression when they both turned to see Sebastian Kehoe standing behind her.
“Sure,” Alice said.
Kehoe nodded in the direction of the woods. The sun had just slipped beneath the horizon, leaving the western sky a brilliant blend of magenta, orange, red, and gold, but the woods were dark. Kehoe paused just inside the shadow the tall trees cast onto the beach and faced her.
“I suppose you know what this is about?” Kehoe asked.
“Um . . .” Alice blinked. The light from the western sky gleamed red in his glasses, although his face was cast in shadow. “Bang?” she asked hesitantly.
He looked grim. “I’m not happy about your little spectacle. I’ve made it clear around camp that while Camp Wildwood forays have been condoned if not encouraged in the past, we were putting a damper on the idea this year. Now your kids have gone and made it seem even more glamorous and desirable to break the rules in subsequent years.”
Alice swallowed thickly. “I didn’t think there was any real danger in it, sir. My kids knew they’d have to be respectful. I wasn’t encouraging theft. I made sure they understood that.”
Kehoe’s mouth clamped together in a tight, straight line. “I suppose you had some advice from a certain former Red Team member? Some instructions from another Durand maverick?”
A chill passed over the surface of her arms. He was referring to Dylan, of course. He really did suspect their involvement. Or possibly, he more than suspected.
But he was wrong to think Dylan had given her the idea. She raised her chin.
“No. Any ideas I did plant with the kids were mine alone, and they came up with the rest. The whole photo as a symbol of the claiming of the goat versus actually stealing it was their idea. So was the pizza party, which personally, I think was brilliant. It was a gesture of friendship, and it went a long way to mend any bad feelings that happened between Camp Durand and Wildwood last year.”