herself the judge was her father, she still couldn’t think of any man in that role but Daddy.
“He wanted to know how you were doing, how you were feeling. You know, as you are pregnant and all.”
Tamara sighed.
“I told him you were fine as frog’s hair. I told him you were puking every hour on the hour. But considering how fat you’re getting, that was probably a good thing. I also told him you were gassy. Real gassy. Like we had to sleep in separate houses gassy. He gave me his condolences, said pregnancy was very hard on a woman, and I should be as nice to you as I could.”
Tamara dug her fingers deep into the sand, clawing at it.
“Thank you for calling Judge Headley and checking on the will.”
“Right,” he said. “I picked up the mail, too. Apparently your mother sent Judge Headley a letter to us and his secretary forwarded it our way. You want to read it or should I?”
Tamara held up her hand and Levi put the envelope in it. Tamara rolled up and looked at it. It was her mother’s handwriting, addressed to Levi Shelby and Tamara Maddox.
Tamara stood up and walked across the sand to the edge of the ocean. She ripped the letter in half and then in quarters and then dropped them into the water.
“What did you do that for?” Levi asked.
“Do you care what my mother has to say to us?” Tamara asked.
“No.”
“Neither do I.”
She returned to her umbrella, pointedly ignoring Levi’s gaze from behind her sunglasses as he watched her every movement. He didn’t need to know she was looking at him looking at her.
“Something else came in the mail today,” he said as soon as she’d settled back down on her big pink towel.
“You’re in my sun,” she said.
“The sun is setting.”
“You’re in my shade, then.”
Levi moved a foot to the right.
“You don’t want to know what else we got in the mail today?” he asked.
“Not really, but you can tell me if it makes you happy.”
“I’ll tell you. But first you can tell me something. On a scale of one to ten, how much do you hate me?” he asked.
“The scale only goes to ten?”
“Good Lord, why on earth did I think marrying a teenager was a good idea?” Levi asked to the sky.
“I didn’t think you believed in God.”
“I don’t, but I’m starting to see the appeal. Something to be said for having someone to hash it out with when one’s high-strung overwrought born-again spoiled-rotten child bride gets her dander up for no good reason.”
“My dander is not up.”
“You have been giving me the silent treatment for three solid weeks.”
“I talk to you whenever you want me to. I’m talking right now.”
“Yeah, I ask you what you want for breakfast and you tell me you already ate. I ask you if you want to go check out Beaufort or Charleston and you say, ‘Whatever you want.’ When I tell the judge you’re so gassy you’re blowing holes in the walls, you thank me for checking in with the judge.”
“You did tell me to leave you alone. You can’t complain when I do what you told me to do.”
“Goddammit, Tamara, you are driving me crazy.”
Tamara stood up and grabbed up her sundress, shook out the sand and shimmied into it.
“You were born crazy,” Tamara said as she yanked her dress into place. “I’m just driving you home.”
She closed the beach umbrella, picked it up and started walking away.
“A doctor’s bill,” Levi said. “That’s what came in the mail. A ten-dollar bill from Dr. Jefferson Goode for ‘Mrs. Shelby’s pelvic exam and birth control pills.’”
“I’ll pay the bill tomorrow,” she said, still walking.
Levi jogged across the beach to her.
“You weren’t planning on telling me you went on the pill?”
“No.”
“And might I ask why not?”
“You told me to—”
“Leave you alone, yes, I did. I shouldn’t have.”
“Well, you did. So I did. I keep the pills right by the horse statue in my room, which you’d know if you ever came into my bedroom, but since you don’t—” she paused and pushed her sunglasses back up on her head to meet him eye-to-eye “—you don’t.”
“I see how it is,” he said. They stood at the edge of the beach where it met the edge of the forest with nothing between the two but a line of tall beach grass that itched her legs.
“How is it?”
“You’re punishing me because I hurt your feelings.”
“I’m not doing anything except what you told me