Reckless by Leigh LaValle

Author:Leigh LaValle [LaValle, Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heart Bay Publishing
Published: 2018-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

Ford

Across the court, the ladies forfeited the game, arms slung around each other. They looked damn happy about it, too.

“A few more volleys and we would’ve won,” Josh said, sounding frustrated as they walked off.

“I think Crystal made her point. Didn’t you see how Anna was losing her smile?”

“So we’re supposed to let her win because she’s the bride?” Josh huffed.

I let him answer his own question.

He swore under his breath.

Yup. We were in the doghouse.

Josh and I rolled out the court then trudged home in silence. I’d been so busy watching Crystal on the walk over — noticing the way she made faces when I talked about brunch attire versus cocktail attire — that I hadn’t noticed my surroundings.

Not that there was anything new to see. Nothing changed around here — the same houses, the same flowerbeds, the same view of the lake, the same old rocks I’d climbed as a kid. I knew all the names on the mailboxes, as summer homes were passed down from one generation to the next. Life was slower here, and people kept it that way on purpose. It was our escape from Real Life.

Although, as I knew very well, it was just an illusion. There was no escaping from Real Life. It was all just a semblance of happiness. Beneath those flowerbeds was the same dirt and mud as everywhere else.

Noticing my brooding mood, or perhaps concerned for his bride, Josh mumbled some excuse and jogged ahead. I cut through the field by the old farmhouse and went down to the water. I’d take the shoreline home, like I used to as a kid. Grasshoppers flew through the tall grass, their wings snapping and buzzing. Queen Anne’s lace covered the left corner of the meadow, like someone had dropped a tablecloth. Had Crystal run through the flowers with Anna? When she was little, Anna used to tell me she wanted to make a wedding dress out of Queen Anne’s lace when she grew up — I wondered if she remembered that now. A bird trilled in the distance, and a boat engine roared down the lake. Somewhere, kids were laughing.

I wished Crystal were with me. I wanted to point it all out to her.

I took a deep breath.

It tugged at me, all of it. Tugged at me the way an Edward Hopper painting tugged at me with iconic images of home, of women looking out the window and men reading the paper, and sailboats slanting in the wind.

But, like a painting, I knew it was a veneer, an imagined world. I wanted something I couldn’t have. Something I’d thought I’d had, but then the veil had been lifted. The flowers had died, and I’d seen the mud beneath.

My wretched dad and his wretched secrets.

They’d become mine too. And I hated him for that.

Rubbing my chest where it ached, I turned along the shoreline, walking in front of the same cottages, passing the same docks, the same towering trees, the same crumbling stone walls.

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