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“He flew her down.”
“They seem to be fairly chummy.”
“Much to our dismay. I can’t imagine what she’s thinking.”
“She probably thinking he’s a superstud. Just like Susan did.”
Olivia said nothing in response to that, probably because she was offended by the very idea and couldn’t bear to consider the implications.
“They flew back to Austin late last night,” she continued. “I don’t know what her hurry was, why she didn’t stay over until this morning at least.”
“Did you ask her?”
“She told me that Howard had sent her back to do something for him, but when I pressed her on it, she was evasive. When I asked Howard about it, he brushed it off as being unimportant.”
“Well, then—”
“But I think they’re keeping something from me, and I’m afraid.” She began to cry.
“Mother, don’t do this to yourself. You’re reading something into nothing. You’re exhausted and overwrought, and in your present circumstances, who wouldn’t be?”
“Everyone’s dancing around the issue.”
“What issue?”
“I don’t know!” she exclaimed raggedly. “That’s just it. I feel like I’m the only one not in on the joke. I hated that you and Bellamy had drifted apart. I’m thrilled that you got together. But what was so urgent that she left her dying father and went to see you now? What did you talk about?”
“We caught up on each other’s lives. She met William. I told her about the restaurants, congratulated her on her book’s success. It was like that.”
“Why are you lying to me, Steven? Bellamy herself told me that she went to see you to talk—as adults—about that Memorial Day.”
He lowered his head and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose until it hurt. “All right, yes. Bellamy wanted to hear my perspective of events because apparently there are things she doesn’t know.”
“I don’t understand her preoccupation. Truly I don’t. It’s ancient history.”
“Not to her it isn’t. It’s very much in the present.”
“Do you think that’s healthy? For any of us?”
“No.”
“So what did you tell her? Did you tell her—”
“That I had pimped for Susan that day?”
“That’s a horrible thing to say! About your stepsister and yourself.”
“How would you put it?”
“Not nearly as crudely.”
“Well, I didn’t tell Bellamy about it in any terms.”
“There’s no reason why you should have. Boys and girls have been using go-betweens since there were boys and girls. Susan wanted to dance with Allen Strickland, and she asked you to deliver the message to him. It had tragic consequences, but, at the time, it was an innocent action, something that any typical teenage girl would have done.”
Except that Susan wasn’t typical and was by no means innocent.
He’d never shared with his mother or Howard the horrible secret of what was happening in his bedroom most nights, but he had admitted to them what had happened at the barbecue.
