cries of joy.”
“Nor would she be delighted to know she would be called ‘Gram.’ ”
Ari closed her eyes and leaned back against the sofa. It was almost a pleasure to focus on her father’s affair. It took her mind off her own problem. She wasn’t prepared to be a mother yet, not emotionally or practically. For a moment, she thought she was going to throw up again, right in the living room.
“Hey-ho!” a man called. The screen door slammed shut and Cliff strode into the living room. In his tennis whites, his skin tanned and blushed from the sun, his shoulders wide, his smile brilliant, he looked like the very model of a healthy, happy man.
“Uncle Cliff!” Ari said, shocked.
“Cliff? What are you doing here?” Eleanor asked.
Cliff looked affronted. “Excuse me. Do I have the wrong house? You do resemble my mother. I usually stop by on the weekends.”
“Uncle Cliff,” Ari cried, “we’ve got a terrible problem.”
“Really?” Cliff asked, eyebrows arched.
Alicia returned to the living room. Her face was again perfectly blushed, her mascara darkened. “What are you doing here?” she asked Cliff.
“What are you doing here?” Cliff shot back. “Where’s Phillip?”
“Probably with his girlfriend,” Alicia said.
“What?” Cliff asked.
“My father’s been seeing a woman on the island,” Ari told him quietly.
“You mean, like playing tennis?”
“No,” Alicia said. “They’ve seen him go into her house.”
“Have you called him?” Cliff asked.
“Why, no,” Alicia said sarcastically. “That never occurred to me.” Her shoulders slumped. “Whenever I have tried to call Phillip, I only get voicemail. I haven’t seen much of him this summer. He said he was working.”
Cliff’s pose of hail-fellow-well-met evaporated. He went pale. “That jerk!” Blinking, he looked at Ari and at his mother and back at Alicia. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going on a trip,” Alicia said. She was beginning to cry again.
Ari wept, too. Her mother hated being embarrassed. She always tried to look perfect, and now she stood before them shaking, with tears running down her cheeks, streaking her mascara, her shoulders slumped, nearly falling to the floor in her misery. Ari started to go to her mother, to hug her.
Cliff crossed the room. He pulled his sister to him, hugging her tightly, her face nestled against his chest, as if protecting her from the rest of the world.
“You know, Leeci,” he murmured, “it’s not the end of the world. Men do stupid things like this all the time.”
Ari and Eleanor stared at each other wide-eyed. They’d never heard Cliff call his sister by a nickname before. They’d never seen him so tender before. With the age difference between them, Alicia had considered him a pest. In the past few years, when the family got together, Alicia was haughty and Cliff was devil-may-care. But they were adults now, and clearly they cared for each other.
“Listen,” Cliff said to Alicia, “I’m taking you up to Boston to my apartment. We’ll get drunk. I’ll make some diplomatic inquiries and find out what the bastard is up to.”
Alicia sniffed back her tears. “I want to go on a trip,” she said, sounding like a child.
“Well, we’ll go on a trip! First stop, Boston,” Cliff said. “Come on, kiddo.” He kept his arm around his sister’s shoulders as he led her to the door.
Astonished, Ari and Eleanor watched them go.
“I always thought Mom disliked Uncle Cliff,” Ari said, trying to puzzle it all out.
Eleanor spoke slowly, thinking it through. “Even when they were children, I never thought they were close. I do think Cliff idolized her when he was little. His sophisticated big sister.”
“Maybe he’s been waiting all his life to be her hero,” Ari said.
“Yes,” Eleanor agreed. “I think you just may be right.”
“Let’s go for a walk,” Ari suggested.
“Yes, let’s,” Eleanor agreed.
The rest of the day they spent quietly, struggling with their own thoughts and emotions. That night they ate sandwiches and went to bed early. From her bedroom, Ari heard the sounds of Masterpiece. She was glad her grandmother had something elegant to soothe her thoughts and let her escape from reality for just a while. Ari googled topics about pregnancy and Planned Parenthood until her head swam and her wrists ached. She was exhausted. She’d never been so glad to fall asleep before in her life.
Sixteen
Monday, Beach Camp was fun, as always, but after the children left, Cal asked if he could talk with Ari privately.
“Sure,” she said. They were in the community school building. Sandy and all the young volunteers had left.
“Let’s just sit