“I’ve never even made love with Martin,” she said. “Not the whole thing.”
“Really?”
“Surprised?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“But you have with Alex.”
“Sure.”
“Only Alex?”
“I told you. Yes.”
“Aren’t you afraid of AIDS?”
“Of course. But we’re very careful. And neither of us plays around.”
“I hate that expression!” she said.
“I guess I do too. Or the idea behind it.”
“But what am I doing to poor Cog?”
“I wouldn’t worry about Cog.”
She chuckled. “The Cloud speaks.”
“Cog can take care of himself.”
“You don’t even know him,” she said.
“I don’t have to.”
“Oh, Lang, he’s not what you think. He’s very serious about me. I feel that, even though he doesn’t say he loves me. He keeps asking me to come away with him. It’s very flattering…but what am I doing?”
“Well, you never met anyone that famous…and with his own Porsche, too.”
“Don’t be sarcastic. I never met anyone, famous or not. Aniane is not a hot spot.”
“So coming here was good for you, wasn’t it?”
“I’ll never admit that to my folks. They’re always debating about moving back here one day.”
“Would you, if there wasn’t a Martin?”
“There is a Martin…. I just don’t want anyone to get hurt, Lang.”
“Or get hurt yourself.”
“Or get hurt myself. Yes…I’m a little mixed up, aren’t I?”
“A little?” I grinned at her. “You’re a mess.”
She punched my arm. Hard. Then pushed me backward.
She got up and ran, and I got up and ran after her.
We went down the beach fast, in the sun, laughing.
Finally, I caught her. We wrestled ourselves down to the sand. I held her under me and said, “Say uncle!”
“What?”
“Say uncle!”
She didn’t know the expression. She said, “What’s Uncle Ben got to do with it?”
I began tickling her and she kicked up sand. We were both laughing and tumbling around. Then I knew I had to roll off her—fast.
I lay on my stomach and she stretched out beside me on her back.
We were both sweating, both out of breath.
“Mon dieu!” she said.
I stayed on my stomach. I had to.
She said, “What would I do without you?”
“Same here,” I said.
Sometimes you don’t know how happy you are until later when you think back. But I knew then.
I had this sweet longing for her.
It was different from any feeling I’d ever had with Alex, because from the beginning with him, I always knew what would happen next.
With her there was no next, and it didn’t matter.
I think we both fell asleep. Maybe she was just being very still while I dropped off for a few minutes.
When I woke up, we were on our sides, turned toward each other. She opened her eyes and smiled. She reached out and drew her fingernail down my cheek. “Do you think the gulls got our lunch, Lang? We’d better go back to the blanket.”
“Let them have our lunch.”
“What are you thinking, Lang? You look so solemn.”
“I think I love you.” I just blurted it out.
“No, you don’t. You know what you love?” She put her finger between my teeth. “You love to tell lies.”
I bit her finger gently. “No. I think it’s true.”
“If it’s true,” she said, “then feed me. I’m hungry.” She poked her finger into my chin. “Come on!”
I got up and reached down to help her to her feet.
A voice said, “I thought it was you.”
I shielded my eyes against the sun and looked up at a girl sitting with a fellow on a blanket behind us.
“Remember me?” Brittany Ball said.
TWENTY-NINE
IN THE CAR, ON the way home, Huguette babbled on about what I must have done to make Brittany throw the sand cast at me.
“Your friend Nick introduced her to me the night of Cog’s party at Sob Story. She was very cool to me.”
“She was mad at me, not you. Nick probably told her we were making out the night before at Roundelay.”
“Did you tell her you loved her, too?”
“Never!”
“No one throws rocks at someone without a good reason!”
“I’d just told her I was gay.”
“Ah! It was the other way around with me. First you say you’re gay, then you tell me you love me.”
“I only dated her a few times.”
“Merde, Lang! She wouldn’t be that angry if you hadn’t led her on, and then dropped the other sock!”
“The other shoe.”
“The sock, the shoe, you should be locked up.” She laughed. “You’re a menace.”
Huguette’s little tirade took the edge off my sudden confession of love. We were both laughing by the time we reached Roundelay.
I drove the Aurora up past the gates and left it and her in the driveway. I never drove the car to work. I always got a ride with one of the other waiters at Sob Story.
After I finished getting the sand off my feet, then going into the cottage to shower and dress, I was headed down toward the gate when I saw Huguette roar off alone in the Aurora.
My mother told me what had happened later that night after I got home. Franklin had filled her in on the contretemps taking place up in the big house.
Nevada had invited a staff member of The Bentley Academy to drop in at any time, to discuss the idea of Huguette enrolling there.
A Ms. Hamilton was waiting at Roundelay when we’d arrived from the beach.
It was the first Huguette had heard anything about a plan to send her to boarding school in Pennsylvania that autumn.
It was the first she’d heard that her folks were packing up and moving back to New York City. Mrs. Rochan was arriving in New York that Monday to apartment hunt.
“Where was Huguette going in the Aurora?”
“Apparently she went into the village and called that French boyfriend of hers,” said my mother. “The Rochans had already told him their plans. And he told Huguette that he wanted her to stay here and go to school here.”
“How did she take it?”
“You know her. She’s a firecracker! She came back to Roundelay and lit into Mr. Nevada.”
“I don’t blame her,” I said.
“I
