“Beth, I don’t think this is something you and I need to talk about.”
“Isn’t it?” This was more complicated than she could bear.
Her father bristled. “This is my house, too. I haven’t brought anyone into it since your mother died. You’re a grown woman now. If we lived in another town where real estate wasn’t so expensive you wouldn’t be living with me.”
“So I’m in the way,” Beth cried. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Oh, Beth, come on. I don’t mean you’re in the way. For God’s sake, this is getting us nowhere.”
“Actually,” Beth said, lifting her chin, cooling her voice, “this is very helpful. Tomorrow I’ll find another place to live.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Her father ran his hands through his hair. “We can find a better way to resolve this.”
“I don’t think so. I think we’ve said everything we need to say.” Beth stood up and walked across the room.
When she reached the doorway, her father called out, “You haven’t told me about you and Theo.”
She stiffened, but didn’t turn her head. “I don’t need to tell you anything. I’m an adult, not a child.”
She went up the stairs, head held high, but in her room she threw herself on her bed and howled into her pillow. What was wrong with her? Why was she being so mean to her dad? She wanted him to be happy.
And she wanted to make love with Theo. That was the problem. She’d had such fun at the play with him, and it had been so romantic, walking home in the rain, holding hands, feeling the warm rain slide her clothes against her body…All her life she’d been dreaming of this moment with Theo, and it had been wrenched away from her by the sight of her father and Lisa. So Beth was acting like a spoiled child who dropped her ice cream cone.
She didn’t want to be that spoiled child. She was an educated, enlightened, intelligent woman. She was much more herself when she was in school. It was living with her father that regressed her. If she’d been living somewhere else, tonight’s situation wouldn’t have happened. Her father and Lisa could have done, well, whatever they’d wanted to, but more important, she and Theo could have been together as adults, as two grown-ups who wanted to be with each other. In bed.
Tomorrow, Beth decided, she really would find another place to live.
* * *
—
“So that was weird, right?” Theo asked his mom as they walked in the rain to their house.
“It was,” Lisa agreed.
“What were you doing?” Theo asked.
“What were we doing? The same thing you and Beth were doing. Walking in the rain.”
“Mom.”
“Theo.”
“You know he’s a lot younger than you.”
“Really? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Theo sighed. “Do you like him a lot?”
“I like him a lot.”
“So what’s going to happen?”
“Well, first of all, I’m going to keep seeing him. He makes me happy.”
They were almost to their house. The rain was still racketing down so hard some of the drops bounced off the sidewalks. Lightning flashed in the distance and thunder rolled over their heads.
“I bet it’s flooding down on Easy Street,” Theo said.
Lisa smiled. “You’re such a guy.”
Theo was quiet for a while, then he said, casually, “I like Mack.”
“I like Mack, too. And for what it’s worth, he thinks you’ve got the makings of a fine carpenter.”
Theo asked, “Is it too weird, me working for him, you, um, dating him?”
“I can handle it,” Lisa replied. “Can you?”
After a beat, Theo answered, “Yeah.”
“Is it nice, seeing Beth again? Do you talk about Atticus? You three were such a gang.”
“Yeah, we were, but it’s different now. Time has passed. We’ve changed. I like her, Mom.” It was easy to say this in the darkness, while they walked side by side. “I like her a lot.”
“I don’t think she likes me.”
“Really? She hasn’t said anything. Give her time. She’s kind of, well, I mean, she finds it hard to trust people, I think. Because of Atticus.” After another long pause, Theo said, with a grin that carried into his voice, “She really likes me. So she’s going to like you.”
“Dear Lord,” Lisa said. “You’re as vain as you were as a teenager.”
* * *
—
Theo woke to the irresistible aroma of bacon. He had such a good mom. As he quickly showered, shaved, and dressed, he replayed last evening. He’d experienced way more emotions than he was comfortable with. First, he was probably in love with Beth, which came along with a tangle of complications. Beth had changed so radically last night when she saw her father and his mother walking in the rain.
And it was odd, his mom and Mack. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. He wanted to talk with Juliet about this. When they were small, they used to hide behind the sofa and whisper with each other about whether or not they wanted a stepdad. Basically, they did not. They were a fine enough family as they were. Except sometimes Juliet cried because she wished she had a dad to see her in her ballet recitals, and Theo always got sick to his stomach because the school had father-son dinners once a year and Theo couldn’t go with his grandfather because he wasn’t in good health. They said he could come with a friend or his mother, but forget that. When they were younger, they hadn’t considered that their mother might want a male…friend. Now they were older, and their mother seemed so happy when she was with Mack.
Theo didn’t want to mess that up for her.
twenty-five
Beth unlocked the door and entered the Ocean Matters office. She was all discombobulated today, torn between sweet thoughts of Theo and hurt feelings because since their walk in the rain last night, he hadn’t phoned or texted her. She could reach out to him, of course, but stubbornness stopped her. Call her old-fashioned, but she felt very deeply that he should call her. And there was the bonus misery of her father and Theo’s mother. Did Theo want to drop her because he didn’t want to get between his mother and Mack? Okay, he could at least man up and tell her that. And she wanted to move out of her house, but where could she go? It would be impossible to find a place to live on the island in the summer, even if she could afford a place the size of a closet.