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"Hi, JEREMY!" William mimicked.
"Come get ice cream with us!" Madison said.
"Yeah, come get ice cream!" Zoe agreed.
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William took up the call, and soon all the kids were begging Jeremy to come to the Snowflake with them.
"You guys getting sundaes?" Jeremy asked. "Which ones are your favorite?"
"Hot fudge," William said promptly.
"Good choice, my man." Jeremy nodded.
"Butterscotch," said Zoe.
"Even better."
"Can you? Can you? Can you?" Zoe asked. "Come with us?"
"If it's okay." Jeremy asked. "I'm done for the day."
"I don't mind." Eliza shrugged. "I was going to wait for Mara, but I heard her fighting with her boyfriend on the phone, so I figured she might need a break."
"Then it's just us." Jeremy smiled.
The Snowflake was a cute retro-fifties-style diner on nearby Pantigo Road, famous for its juicy hamburgers and vats of homemade ice cream. Eliza eased the Range Rover into the parking lot next to the creepy statue of a six-foot-tall hot dog squeezing ketchup on itself. It was famous in the Hamptons as "the weird hot dog."
The Perry kids lined up in front of the ice cream counter, peering into the freezer.
"I want Tasti D-Lite," Madison decided. "Poppy and Sugar always order it."
"They don't have nonfat ice cream here," Eliza said patiently.
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It was one of the reasons the Snowflak
e was so popular. "And anyway, it's not really that good for you, sweetie. It has more sugar than regular ice cream so you'll be hungry again in an hour, plus it doesn't taste as good!"
Eliza felt bad for the kid. Sugar, Poppy, and Anna, with their fickle, macrobiotic diets, food phobias, and addiction to laxatives, weren't the best examples of healthy nutrition. Lately Madison had been mimicking their food indulgences--not eating for hours and then gorging herself, which made it even worse. But at least she hadn't learned the twins' trick of post-meal excursions to the bathroom to throw up. Not yet, that is.
"Eating healthy is all about moderation," Eliza said. "Why don't you have one scoop of butter pecan instead of the whole sundae that you usually do? You'll feel better and you won't crave sweets later."
If there's one thing Eliza knew about, it was the Zone, the South Beach Diet, Atkins, Sugar Busters, and portion control. Mostly she thought it was a bunch of hooey--who can give up carbs for good?--but she'd taken the major tenets to heart years ago.
Once the kids were properly sated, they piled back in the car. Eliza backed out of the lot and wheeled the car to their usual destination.
"Have you ever been to Two Mile Hollow Beach?" Jeremy asked.
"Isn't that the gay beach?"
"Yeah, but only on the far side. On the other side it's all families.
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And it's great. It's so empty and doesn't have the scene of Georgica. We should go there."
