He scratched his head. “I went to hang out with Luke to, I don’t know, blow off some steam or whatever before going back to school. Anyway, we had some vodka Red Bulls, and then some more. And then I lost count.” He shrugged again. “Anyway, I want to be here. With all of you.” He looked at Gretchen. “I need to be. Classes just started yesterday, and I can email my professors and keep up on my work, talk to Coach. I’ll stay on top of everything. I promise. We don’t even have to tell Dad if it will worry him or whatever.” He hesitated. “Please,Mom. I can’t be up there all alone.”
And what could Gretchen possibly say to that? Also, with Becks at home, she could keep an eye on what kind of toll the stress was taking on him. That was a worry all its own.
“As long as you really do stay on top of things,” Gretchen said, pulling the first set of pancakes off the pan and stacking them on a plate. “But I really don’t think you should drink like that ever, Becks. You weren’t making any sense.”
“You talked to me?” Becks asked. “I don’t remember that at all.”
“We spoke briefly. I helped you get to bed, that’s all.”
“What did I say?” He seemed nervous. Maybe hehadbeen on something.
“Nothing, really. You just kept apologizing.” Gretchen set the plate on the counter. “You should eat something, Becks. You’ll feel better.”
Becks speared a fork through the top three pancakes and transferred them to his plate. He smiled lopsidedly. “You got some Tylenol floating around somewhere?”
Gretchen smiled despite herself. A hungover twenty-year-old son on the dean’s list for computer science at Dartmouth was a problem she could deal with, the kind she could have even told the ladies at tennis about. She felt a sharp pang of nostalgia for her old life.
“There might be some in the powder room,” Gretchen said. “Let me go check.”
It turned out there was nothing in the powder room medicine cabinet except fancy hand lotions and expensive soaps. Gretchen checked the narrow powder room closet behind her: nothing of much use in there, either. She did have Tylenol in one of her purses, or certainly upstairs. She was closing the closet door when a small duffel at the bottom caught her eye. It was one of Richard’s Goldman bags. They had dozens at this point—the company gave them out at the annual firm outing—but what was it doing in the bathroom? Gretchen crouched down, unzipped it.
What on earth—cans of spray paint? That made no sense. The panic was rising in her chest, coming on even faster than when she blacked out during Oppy’s performance. Then her mind settled on an obvious explanation. The wallpaper guys must have left the paint, and Lita had used one of the bags to tuck it away. Lita did that kind of thing all the time in an effort to be helpful. Usually, it was. It still was. Gretchen calmly zipped the bag, returned it to the closet, and shut the door.
—
Not every little thing was an explosive secret, Gretchen repeated to herself as she returned to the kitchen, Tylenol from the upstairsbathroom in her hand. Becks and Elizabeth were staring down at his phone, their brows both furrowed.
“What’s going on, you two?” Gretchen asked.
“ ‘We need to meet again,’ ” Becks said, his eyes still on his phone.
“Meet about what?” Gretchen asked.
Becks looked up at her and gestured to the phone. “That’s what the text says. Who is it?”
She laughed. “Well, how on earth would I know who’s texting you?”
“It’syourphone, Mom,” Elizabeth said. “It’s from a blocked number.”
Oh my God. It washerphone Becks was holding. She’d left it there on the island without even thinking.Act normal.
“Mom…hello…who is that?” Elizabeth prodded.
“I have no idea.” Gretchen laughed and, to her credit, quite believably. “A wrong number obviously. It’s a blocked call. Or maybe some kind of prank.”
She held out a hand and when Becks passed her the phone, she dropped it into her purse on the far end of the island. “Now, can I get you some fruit, Elizabeth? I also have some…Croissants aren’t vegan, either, are they? I really didn’t prepare properly. I should always have things in the house you can eat.” She grabbed her purse. “I’ll just run down to Vanessa’s and pick up some vegan muffins. They have so many options these days.”
“Stop obsessing about the stupid food, Mom.” Elizabeth eyed Gretchen suspiciously. Nothing was lost on these children,nothing! Gretchen saw the moment Elizabeth willed herself to leave it, and that kindness might have been worse than anything else. Much worse. “I just mean—we’re okay, Mom. Really. You don’t have to do everything.”
The sound of the front door opening echoed through the apartment. And a second later Cassandra called out, “Hello! Where is everyone?”
The meeting with Scotty—he and Mikey Pearce would be there any minute. Gretchen had gotten so distracted she’d nearly forgotten all about it.
“We’re in the kitchen!” Gretchen called back.
“What areyoudoing here?” Elizabeth asked when Cassandra finally appeared.
“And hello to you, Elizabeth.Sodelighted to see that you’re still here.”
