yet. I’m going to wait. I’m collecting evidence, building a case.”
“And you’re sure these aren’t from a friend of Peter’s?”
“Peter has been at camp all summer,” Pamela says.
“I only ask because this is the kind of underwear that young people wear.”
“Zach’s lover is younger!” Pamela says. “She wears hooker panties!”
“Why was it in the laundry?” Willa asks. “Was the woman here, in the house?”
“No!” Pamela shrieks. “At least, I don’t think so. I hope not. I found it stuffed deep in the pocket of Zach’s khakis. I thought I would pull out a sock, you know how that happens in the wash sometimes, and it was this. She must have given it to him.”
“Ew,” Willa says.
Pamela shakes her head. “You have no idea what it’s like getting older, Willa. I hope Rip doesn’t ever do this to you.”
The notion is outrageous. And mean-spirited. Willa is pregnant. Who says such a thing to a pregnant woman?
“Anyway, I have to get ready for work,” Pamela says. Willa is being dismissed. “Thank you for coming over. I needed to share this with someone.”
“You’re welcome,” Willa says. This whole encounter has been very distasteful and Willa is still smarting from the comment about Rip. As if!
But that’s not what bothers Willa the most. What bothers her the most is…something she’s too addled to admit even to herself.
Pamela heads to the kitchen, calling out, “Coffee, here I come!” and Willa heads for the front door, scooping the thong up as she leaves.
Amy
Amy loves Sundays with Dennis because he knows how to relax. JP was always up at the crack of dawn, which arrives very, very early in the summer, because he liked to be waiting outside the Hub on Main Street when the guy arrived to deliver the New York Times. JP claimed this behavior had been ingrained in him from childhood in Manhattan—Sundays didn’t begin for Lucinda or his grandparents until the Times was snapped open—but Amy suspects it has more to do with Vivi and the bestseller list. After he secured the paper, it was off to the Downyflake to get a box of doughnuts and then home to make a second pot of coffee.
Dennis, however, likes to sleep in. He has what Amy thinks of as a talent for sleep. He sleeps deep and hard and nothing can stir him or wake him until morning. He makes a soft growling noise like a snuggly woodland creature, a welcome change from JP’s snoring, which sounded like someone jackhammering asphalt. It was occasionally so bad that Amy would think, No wonder Vivi didn’t fight harder to reconcile.
When Dennis wakes up, he heads to the bathroom to relieve himself and brush his teeth, then he returns to bed and makes love to Amy (skillfully; he’s by far the best lover she’s ever had) and falls back to sleep. Sundays are his only day off (same with Amy in the summer) and he doesn’t feel the need to plan anything. Sunday is as God intended: a day of rest.
On the third Sunday in August—the summer is drawing to a close and Amy, for one, is relieved—she and Dennis are lying in bed. They’re at the part of the morning when they have just made love and Dennis has fallen back to sleep. Amy curls up against Dennis’s wide, warm back and kisses the tattoo of an American flag on his right shoulder blade. She can see bright sunshine trying to insinuate itself into the room around the edges of the room-darkening shades. Amy always wishes for a rainy Sunday, the gloomier the better, but she hasn’t been granted one all summer. The Sundays have been painfully beautiful. They’ll have to go to the beach later, she supposes. Or maybe she’ll suggest a late lunch at the Galley. She has found Dennis to be lavish when it comes to spending money on fun, which is another thing she likes about him, in addition to the sex and the sleeping.
They’re really very compatible, she thinks.
On this particular morning, Amy can’t fall back to sleep, probably because of the espresso martini she enjoyed last night at the Pearl. She isn’t quite ready to get out of bed—she spends so much time on her feet at work that it’s a luxury to lie down—so she resorts to looking at her phone.
The only news she actually enjoys is entertainment news. When she clicks on the People magazine site, she sees the following headline: “‘Golden Girl’ and Golden Girl Claim Number-One Spots.”