I heard wariness behind it.
“Don’t let the kids wander off together, even if you’re just in another room.” There was pleasure, only the smallest twinge, in saying it. Earned, I thought, considering how she’d dumped on my girl. Maddy tomboyed around in no makeup and outsize, floppy clothes, and Roux had acted as if Luca were too beautiful and shining to even notice she was female. I wasn’t sure what was going on between the kids, but he definitely knew she was a girl. Even so, Roux was staring at me blankly, as if I’d spoken in Latin. I clarified, “Things have heated up between Luca and Madison.”
She shook her head, instantly dismissing me. “No. You misunderstood her. He’s not into her that way. He told me.” That made me laugh, in spite of everything. The real deal, from my belly. Roux’s eyebrows rose. “What?”
I said, “You, the cagiest, most suspicious bitch on planet earth, you believe a teenage male who says he’s ‘not interested in a girl that way.’” Her gaze turned speculative, even concerned. “I’m not basing this on anything Mads told me. Things have gotten physical. I saw them.”
“How physical?” Her voice was sharp.
I gave her the same version I’d told Davis, loath to be more honest with this woman than with my own husband. “Everyone had their clothes on, but there were some wandering hands.”
I could practically see the wheels turning behind her eyes. Her gaze went to Maddy and Luca. They’d loaded the bags, and now they were standing on the deck together, yammering back and forth, pointing at an enormous pelican who had lighted on a nearby pylon.
Luca did genuinely seem to like her, the way Tig had liked me once upon a time. Maybe, in Luca’s head, they were only friends, but something else might well be growing in the depths of him. It had happened that way for Tig. He’d told me so last night, and in spite of everything I felt a little flush of pleasure. Tig would be sleeping now, paying for his late night, but I thought he’d text me as soon as he was up. It scared me, how much I was looking forward to that. Waiting for it, even. A bright spot in a brutal day.
Roux folded her arms, and her eyes on Maddy and Luca went as cool as a shark’s. Her face remained as serene as ever, but inside I could almost feel her balance shifting. She slid me a sideways, questioning glance. She knew as well as I did that teenagers talked. They told each other things they’d never tell adults.
She must be wondering what Luca might’ve spilled. Wondering if I had a way to get that information out of my girl. My dread of the day intensified. All at once I didn’t want her in the same ocean as Maddy. I kept my face as serene as hers, though, as if such a thing had never occurred to me. As if we were just two moms, neither of whom was ready to pick out our granny names.
In the end she shrugged and handed me the paperwork, saying, “Okay. Consider me on alert. God. What a puppy.” She rolled her eyes. “I told him not to get attached.”
I left to help Jay and Winslow with the final checks and to decide a destination. Maddy and the Babbages sat in on that conversation. She was still set on the English Freighter, named for the enormous cargo ship that had been sunk there to form an artificial reef. I suggested an easier site. The English Freighter’s stern was in a trench eighty feet down. Maddy kept pushing, though. The bow rested at fifty-five feet, on a plateau with plenty of life, perfect for Luca. I knew why she was pressing. Last time we were there, we’d seen a bull shark. Luca was wild to see one. The Babbages chimed in on Maddy’s side, reminding me I had only one student to watch out for. Everyone else was an advanced diver with multiple certifications, and dive conditions were near perfect. Calm seas and sunshine. I gave in.
“The English Freighter it is.”
We were ready to go, but Roux and Luca weren’t on board. She’d called him out to the picnic table, and they were locked in an intense conversation. She was dressing him down pretty good by the looks of it. She put a firm hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged her off, shaking his head in