“How did you know I’d be here?” Everett asked.
“Joy told me where to look.”
He stilled. “You spoke with her, then?”
“Yes.”
“Is she all right?” Seth didn’t immediately respond, just stared silently at the rippling lake. “Seth? Is Joy all right?” Everett repeated, taking a step toward the other man.
“Is there somewhere we could sit and talk out of the sun?” Seth wondered aloud.
Everett swallowed uneasily. Something about Seth’s manner was setting off a tiny alarm bell in the back of his head.
“Yeah. Over here,” Everett directed.
He led the other man beneath the shade of the sycamore—not to where Joy and he had made love, but to a thick fallen limb from a tree that was nearer to the lake. He nodded at the branch in an invitation for Seth to sit if he liked. Seth gave him a questioning glance, and Everett said, “I’ve been sitting all day, in between swims to cool off. You go ahead.”
Seth sat, the tree branch squeaking but holding beneath the solid weight of his body.
“You asked me if Joy is all right,” Seth began, his hands on his thighs. “I didn’t answer right away because I wasn’t certain how I should.”
A prickle of wariness went down Everett’s neck. “What’s that mean?”
Seth exhaled. His face was set in its typical impassive expression, but Everett sensed that he was torn about something.
“Seth? Is Joy okay?” he asked sharply, taking a step toward him.
“She says she’s fine.”
“But you don’t believe her?”
Another pause. Everett sensed he had to give Seth time to sort through whatever was bothering him, but he’d never experienced such a pressure to demand answers more.
“Has Joy told you about how her mother died?” Seth asked suddenly.
“Yes.”
Seth regarded him with a dark-eyed stare. “She told you about how brutal Alice’s cancer was? How long it lingered? How her father left them when she was sixteen?”
Everett nodded, his focus on the other man intent.
“Did Joy tell you how she feels about her father?” Seth asked, once again staring out at the lake.
“She told me that she doesn’t hold his leaving against him. She said she isn’t particularly close to him, but that she doesn’t hate him. I gather you feel differently about your brother?”
“I think he’s a spineless degenerate for abandoning Joy and Alice like he did,” he said, the acid in his tone indicating the depth of his derision for Jake Hightower. He turned his stare once again onto Everett. “What do you think about Jake’s leaving like that?”
“Joy insisted I shouldn’t judge him, not ever having been in a situation like that myself.” Everett gave a rueful shrug. “But personally, I’d say your brother sounds like a real louse. Who could leave their wife under those circumstances? Who could possibly leave their daughter to cope with it, when he couldn’t even do it?”
He noticed Seth’s narrowed gaze on him. “What has this got to do with how Joy is doing right at this moment?” Everett demanded.
“So you’ve never been close to anyone who had cancer?”
“No. How is that relevant?” Everett asked, not confrontationally. He just wanted to know why it was meaningful to Joy, because he was starting to realize more and more that this part of Joy’s history was crucial.
“How do you know that you wouldn’t want to avoid that situation, like my brother did, when you’ve never been in his shoes?”
“That’s what Joy said,” he said, exasperated. Why couldn’t Seth just tell him whether Joy was all right or not?