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“I’d like to, but you both keep dropping hints, and it’s making it pretty hard to ignore.”
He stuck his fork in the lasagna, like he was putting a stake into the ground, blocking off his portion.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll tell you. But I don’t want your judgment.”
“Of course.”
“No, don
’t say of course. You won’t mean it. Not when you hear the details. Because the details are going to make you think that you understand what I’m dealing with. And you don’t understand what I’m dealing with.”
“Why? What did you do?”
“Is that a good place to start?”
I put my fork down, moving the pan physically toward him like a peace offering.
“So I think it’s best, for impartiality, if we just talk about it like we’re talking about other people. People you don’t know. People who aren’t your brothers. A guy named Mark. And a guy named Jesse.”
Did Finn see himself more like a Jesse or more like a Mark? I’d guess Jesse.
“I see what you’re doing. Don’t try to guess which one I am,” he said.
“Any other players I need to know for your story?”
“Just Daisy,” he said. Then he sighed, Finn actually sighed out loud. “Daisy is this woman that Jesse met when he was really young. Daisy. And he loved her since he was very young. But he’s a guy. And guys are stupid. Sixteen-year-old guys are so stupid they don’t know yet what stupid even means. So he decided he shouldn’t have anything to do with her. He met someone else . . . Lana.”
“Bobby is cheating on Margaret?”
“How did you get there?”
“It’s obvious.”
“Except you’re wrong.” He looked at me. “I’m Jesse. Bobby is Mark.”
“And who is Lana?”
“Lana is Annabelle Lawrence.”
I looked at him, confused. Annabelle Lawrence was a girl that Finn had dated in high school. She was short, with tons of freckles and a big laugh, the kind of laugh that made you want to be around her all the time. I cried when Finn broke up with her. And I remembered what he’d said. He’d said there were going to be many Annabelles. He hadn’t been kidding.
Finn picked up his fork, taking two big bites in quick succession. “I can’t help how I feel and I can’t do anything about it. And that’s not new.”
“What is?”
“She has feelings for me too.”
Which was when I knew what he was saying. I knew the people who were in love here and who were being kept apart. “Margaret.”
He nodded. “Margaret. Me and Margaret.”
My heart dropped. How had I not known this? How had it not occurred to me, ever? The summer before Bobby and Margaret had started dating, she had been at the house all the time. She and Finn had been lifeguards together at the Ives pool. She had been Finn’s friend first, before she was Bobby’s wife.
“Please don’t look at me like that,” he said.
“Finn, are you sleeping with her?”
Finn shook his head. “That’s your question?”
