After her tears in the schoolyard, Madison hadn’t said a word. Nick had driven in his shiny car, and he’d spent a lot of time talking on his hands-free mobile. He laughed. He listened. He gave short, sharp instructions. He said, “Let me think about it.” He said, “Well, that’s a disaster,” while glancing over his shoulder to switch lanes. He said, “Well done. That’s great news.” He was such a boss.
“Do you enjoy work at the moment?” Alice asked him at one point in between calls.
Nick glanced over at her. “Yes,” he said, after a few seconds. “I love it.”
“That’s great,” said Alice, happy for him.
Nick raised an eyebrow. “You really think so?”
“Of course,” said Alice. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“Nothing,” said Nick, and Alice could sense Madison listening carefully from the backseat.
Nick had turned his phone off now and had left his jacket and tie in the car. Now he was taking off his shoes and socks. Alice looked at his bare feet digging into the sand. His feet were as familiar as her own. How could she not be with someone forever when even their feet—his huge, not especially attractive feet, with their long hairy toes—felt like home?
“Beautiful,” said Nick, gesturing at the smooth, hard, yellow sand, the huge turquoise sky, the ferry chugging its way across the harbor to the city. “Beautiful.” He said it in the same satisfied tone that he would use to describe a good meal at a restaurant, as if the weather and the beach had been prepared especially for him, and presented on a plate, and yes, thank you, it was all up to his high standards and there would be a generous tip as a result. It was so typical Nick. He held up his face to the sun and closed his eyes.
Alice took off her own boots (beautiful—her taste was impeccable, if she did say so herself) and pulled off her socks.
“They’re Tom’s soccer socks,” said Madison, looking up from her knees.
“I was in a rush,” said Alice.
Madison gave her a look. “And that scarf you’re wearing is from Olivia’s dress-up box.”
“I know, but it’s so beautiful.” Alice lifted up the gauzy material.
Madison gave her an inscrutable look and lowered her chin again.
Nick opened his eyes. “Well, Madison—”
“You promised ice creams,” said Madison, glaring at Alice, as if this was to be yet another in a long line of broken promises.
“That’s right, I did,” said Alice.
Nick sighed. “I’ll go.” He put his shoes back on and looked down at Madison. “Don’t you be telling your brother and sister that you got ice cream on the beach, will you? Or next thing, we’ll have all the Love children suspended from school.”
Madison giggled. “Okay.”
As Nick walked off, Madison said, “I don’t want to say what happened in front of Daddy.”
It must be girl stuff. “All right. Just tell me.”
Madison dropped her chin back to her knees and said in a muffled voice, “Chloe said that you and Mr. Gordon had—”
Alice didn’t catch the last word.
“Pardon?” she said.
“Sex!” Madison choked out. “She said that you and Mr. Gordon probably did sex in his office. Like, a hundred times.”
Mr. Gordon. Oh. Dominick.
“Darling,” began Alice, wondering where to start. For one thing she wasn’t sure if it was true. Surely they wouldn’t have had sex in his office? Would they?
“I nearly threw up. I had to take sort of deep breaths and put my hand over my mouth. You didn’t, did you? You never took off your clothes in front of Mr. Gordon, did you?”
Well, if she had, surely Chloe wasn’t privy to the information. Presumably Dominick hadn’t made an announcement about it at school assembly.
“Chloe Harper is a horrible liar,” said Alice decisively.
“I know,” said Madison with relief. “That’s what I said!” She looked out at the water and pushed her hair back behind her ears. “Then she said that I was the ugliest girl in the whole school, but that part wasn’t a lie, that part was true.”
Alice’s heart broke for her. “It certainly was not true.”
“I got this feeling,” said Madison. “A feeling like my head was going to explode. She was standing in front of me and I got out my scissors for art and I cut off her plait. I just went, snip! And it fell straight to the ground. And then when she turned around, I threw my cake at her. It wrecked the cake. Nobody even got to taste it. It was the best cake I ever made.”
“Did you threaten to stab her with the scissors?”
“No! She just made that bit up so I would get into more trouble.”
“Is that the truth?”
“Yes,” said Madison.
“Okay,” said Alice. Well, that was something.
Alice said, “You know, Madison, people are going to say mean things to you all through your life, and if you keep reacting like that, you’re going to end up in jail.”
Madison seemed to consider that. Alice wondered whether her wise, tough-love words were sinking in.
“Actually, I’m too young for jail,” said Madison.
“Well, now you are, but when you’re grown up—”
“When I’m a grown-up it won’t matter.”
“You mean, you won’t care if you go to jail? I think you will.”
Madison rolled her eyes. “No. I won’t care if people say mean things to me, because I’ll be grown up. I can just say, ‘Who cares? I’m going to France.’ ”
Ah. Of course. Alice could remember thinking something similar when she was a child. Once you were a grown-up nobody could hurt your feelings because how could your feelings possibly be hurt when you could drive a car wherever you wanted.
Before she could think of a way to answer without disillusioning her (what was there to look forward to otherwise?), a shadow fell over them.
“Ice cream delivery.” Nick was standing above them, holding three ice cream cones.
“I assume you still like rum and raisin,” he said to Alice.
“Of course.” Fancy having to ask her that.
They sat and ate their ice creams, looking out at the water.
“Madison has just told me what Chloe said to her,” said Alice. “And it was something nasty and untrue.”