Bethany’s ears rang with alarm. She hadn’t even known that Maddie had a boyfriend! What else had she missed out on?
“Did you break up with him?” Bethany asked.
“No. You don’t understand. We’re in love. It was a big mistake, I think. I guess.”
Bethany hated to hear how society had already dug its way through Maddie’s mind. She was too young not to completely abandon people who betrayed her.
“Okay. I think you need to back up and tell me the whole story,” Bethany said. “Otherwise, I’ll get it all wrong.”
Maddie pulled herself up and wrapped herself in a ball, her back against the wall by her bed. “He’s another lifeguard. Johnny. He’s a senior, or he will be a senior. He’s the reason that Tommy and I got the jobs in the first place.”
“How long have you been together?” Bethany asked.
“Four months,” Maddie said. She said it so seriously that Bethany understood this felt like a long time to her. “And we’ve been so happy. Seriously. We talked about getting married.”
Bethany told herself not to make a face.
“Tommy was the one who figured out he was cheating on me,” Maddie said. “He told me tonight, so I called Johnny right away to figure out what was going on. But Johnny told me he isn’t sure we’re happy together. Like, he isn’t sure we have a future?” Her cheeks grew redder and redder, as though she were about to explode with tears again. “And I have to work tomorrow! I don’t want to work tomorrow!”
“You aren’t going to work tomorrow,” Bethany said kindly. “You’re going to call in sick, and we’re going to spend the entire day doing something fun.”
Maddie blinked at her mother as though she’d never seen her before. But Bethany realized this was a way to mend her relationship not only with Maddie but with the other two. She’d call in sick to work. She’d rearrange things. She’d take them sailing, show them that her love was infinite, that nothing would change.
“I can’t call in sick,” Maddie said. “Johnny needs me to work.”
“Johnny can figure something out,” Bethany said firmly. “Johnny doesn’t get everything he wants.”
Maddie offered Bethany the first smile of the night. It lit up Bethany’s soul.
It wasthe day before the Fourth of July, which meant that the island was in utter chaos in preparation for the fireworks and other festivities. Tourists swarmed everywhere, and traffic was a nightmare. Lucky for Bethany, she kept her sailboat on the outer edge of the harbor, allowing easy parking and even easier access. Five minutes after parking, she and her three children were prepping the boat, untying the ropes and filling the sails.
After years on the island, Bethany’s children were capable sailors. They felt no fear on the water and instead embraced the beauty of being on the open seas. For over an hour, they worked diligently, speaking only when they needed to exchange sailing information. By the time they dropped anchor, they’d worked up a sweat.
Removing their clothes, under which they wore swimsuits, Bethany and her children leaped into the water and swam around the boat. Tommy and Phoebe wore goggles and swam down below, searching for fish. Maddie and Bethany remained floating on the surface, their eyes to the blue sky above. Bethany could feel the cracking of Maddie’s broken heart.
Back on the boat, they opened sodas and ate their cheese and turkey sandwiches, which Rod had made for them this morning before going to work. Maddie sniffled as she ate.
“I don’t get it,” Phoebe interjected, a strawberry poised in her right hand. “Why did Johnny cheat on you?”
Maddie sniffed and gave Phoebe a look only an older sister could give a younger one.
“What?” Phoebe demanded.
“You don’t get it. You’ve never had a boyfriend,” Maddie said.
“That’s not true. I have a boyfriend right now,” Phoebe shot back.
Bethany wasn’t emotionally ready for her youngest to have a boyfriend. “Beg your pardon?”
Phoebe glared at all of them. “He’s an actor. I met him at Alana’s theater camp. He’s going to be famous. Like, seriously, I’ve never seen anyone do Hamlet like that.”
“Whatever,” Maddie said.
“Johnny cheated because he is a bad person,” Tommy said, loyal to Maddie through and through. “You should dump him, like, yesterday.”
“I love him,” Maddie cried.
“Love isn’t always enough,” Bethany offered sadly.
