Chloe looked across the table at Daria, who tried to read the message in her sister’s eyes. For the first time, she wondered if Chloe might know what she knew about what had taken place that morning long ago.
The thought sent a chill up her spine. Maybe it was time for Shelly to learn the truth, she thought. Maybe it was time for everyone to know what had happened on the beach that morning.
Ivory increased the tension on his exercise bike and glanced next to him, where Zack was pedaling furiously while reading the latest copy of Sports Illustrated. He was certain Zack had set his tension even higher than Rory’s, yet he was still pedaling faster and barely working up a sweat. Rory could probably work just as hard, he tried to convince himself, but what was the point, really? This easy pace was fine. He planned to take Daria’s advice about talking with Zack while involved in an activity, but he knew he wouldn’t have the wind for a conversation unless he kept the tension low.
He was getting a little annoyed with himself about this new competitive streak he felt with Zack. He hoped that, at the age of thirty-six, he was not already slipping into a mid life crisis.
“Can you get your nose out of that magazine long enough to talk?” Rory asked.
Zack glanced over at him.
“I’m working out,” he said.
“But you’ll only know you’re at the proper level of exertion if you can carry on a conversation,” Rory said.
“That’s an old theory, Dad,” Zack said.
It was?
“Nevertheless,” Rory countered, “I’d like to talk with you about Kara.”
“What about her?” Zack shot him a wary look, and with good reason, Rory thought.
“Well, not about Kara specifically. But about you and Kara together. You and any girl.” He was stumbling a bit on this.
Zack rolled his eyes. “Is this some kind of sex talk?” he asked.
Rory remembered when Zack was seven or eight and wanted to know how babies were created. He’d embraced the opportunity to talk with his son on the subject, and he’d been good at it, too, if he did say so himself. But that had been a piece of cake compared to this.
“Well, I just think it’s time we had a man-to-man talk,” Rory said.
“I have a feeling this isn’t going to be man-to-man,” Zack said. He was standing up on the pedals, pumping hard.
“More like man-to-boy.”
“Well, enough of the preamble,” Rory said.
“I’m just concerned that you and Kara are getting a little too… close. I have nothing against her. I like her.” Rory still didn’t know her well enough to know if he liked her or not. Kara was a closed book, as far as he could tell.
“I
just wanted to. talk with you a bit about it. I mean, I was your age once, and I know the temptation to go too far. “
“You were fifteen in the Middle Ages,” Zack said.
“Things are different now.”
“Oh, they’re not as different as you think. Testosterone hasn’t changed. What it can do to good judgment hasn’t changed.”
“Why don’t you just say it and get it over with?” Zack asked.
“Don’t have sex. That’s what you’re getting at. I hear you. You’ve done the counseling thing. Thanks for the talk.” He was speaking loudly. A young woman on the bike next to his glanced in their direction before’re turning her attention to the book she was reading.
“No, that’s not all I want to say,” Rory lowered his voice. It certainly was his major point, but he knew it was not enough. Like spitting in the wind. He had indeed been fifteen once.
“I just want to be sure that if you do endj up… having sex, that you use protection.” “I know all about that. Dad.”
“Well, you can know all about it, and still not use it,” Rory argued. “Think about Shelly. She was an unwanted baby, left to die on the beach. Her mother was probably a kid Kara’s age. If that boy had used protection, that girl wouldn’t have gotten pregnant, and the baby wouldn’t have been abandoned.”
“So, you want me and Kara to break up.”
Rory frowned.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all.” It took him a moment to realize that Zack was being intentionally obtuse.
“I think you know what I’m saying,” he said. “You and Grace are probably doing it every time I leave the cottage,” Zack provoked him.
“For your information. Grace and I have barely held hands,” he said, as though that noble restraint was his choice.
“And besides. Grace and I are adults.”
“What does that have to do with it?” Zack asked.
“You know the answer to that,” Rory said.
