They walked through the house, out the front door, and around to the narrow path between Darcy’s hedge and the Brueckners’ until they came to the small grassy spot at the end of the Brueckners’ house that bordered on the Szwedas’ garage. They turned left, behind Darcy’s back hedge—which towered like a tall thick green wall. Little wonder people had no idea Darcy was over on the other side.
Lights shone from several windows of the house. Willow’s pace slowed. She reached for Darcy’s hand. Darcy continued walking, almost pulling Willow, across the lawn, up the steps, and into the kitchen.
As they entered the house, Willow made a whimpering noise, like a lost kitten.
“Shake it off,” Darcy said. “Where’s your mom now?” She certainly wasn’t going to have this little chat in Autumn’s bedroom. Nor in the dining room!
“Mom?” Willow’s voice shivered.
“In here.”
Darcy and Willow engaged in an almost comic struggle to make the other one be first to walk into the room. In the end, Darcy entered first, pulling Willow along by the wrist.
The luscious Autumn was curled at one end of a beige sofa, watching a baking show on the large screen TV. She wore a brief and clingy fragment of peach-colored silk and lace, and her abundant hair flowed over her shoulders and down her back.
Darcy remembered how she had worn an old, overwashed, faded, and shapeless Red Sox T-shirt to bed with Boyz. Autumn wore her peach concoction when no one was around.
Darcy made a mental note to invest in some lingerie from Victoria’s Secret.
“God,” Autumn said, seeing Darcy and Willow. “Now what have you done to upset your precious librarian?”
Darcy could see lace at the top of Autumn’s thigh. She noticed Autumn’s finger-and toenails were shellacked a pale peach. She made a mental note to have her own fingernails shellacked sometime. That was supposed to last longer than polish, and didn’t ever chip…What was she thinking? How could she be thinking about shellac at a time like this?
Willow froze in the center of the room.
“Let’s sit down, Willow,” Darcy said quietly.
She tried to tug the girl toward the other end of the sofa, but Willow shuddered and cried, “Ugh! Not so close to her!”
Autumn’s eyes narrowed. Darcy half shoved Willow into a club chair across from Autumn. She sat in the other one. The glass coffee table was between them and Autumn.
Autumn sat up, tugging at the skirt of her lacy lingerie so it covered the few inches at the top of her thighs. Her expression had grown wary.
Darcy prompted Willow, “Willow. You need to tell her.”
Willow, staring steadily at her feet in her sandals, mumbled, “I saw you and Mr. Brueckner.”
“What?” Autumn reared backward. “What did you say?”
Willow raised her head and glared at her mother. “I saw you and Mr. Brueckner.”
Autumn stonewalled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“On the dining room table,” Willow said, and this time she spoke almost too loudly, and her words were clearly an accusation.
Autumn flinched, but immediately recovered, firing back a defensive shot. “Willow, I think you should tell your friend to leave. This is personal business, between you and me. I can’t imagine why you brought her here.”
“Because I need her!” Willow burst out, her voice strong and angry. “Because when I was babysitting, I needed to get Band-Aids because Henry cut himself, and I phoned her to come watch the kids so I could come home to get some!”
“Why didn’t you call me?” Autumn asked, and she seemed to be genuinely curious.
“Because you said you wouldn’t be home!” Willow shouted. “Because you said you were going to walk on the beach and fucking think!”
“Watch your language, young lady,” Autumn said.
“My language? I’m supposed to watch my language while I tell you about seeing you naked with Mr. Brueckner on the dining room table?” The words spilled from Willow’s mouth. “Darcy was home, and she came to help me right away and we had to call Susan, and we had to take Henry to the hospital and he had to have stitches and Susan was so nice to me even though I was babysitting when Henry cut himself, and all I could think about was seeing you with Mr. Brueckner!”
“Oh, honey.” At last Autumn softened as she absorbed Willow’s words.
“And I had to make Darcy come with me because I was afraid of telling you because it is so gross.”
“I’m sure Darcy was delighted to hear about what a tramp I am,” Autumn replied, a sullen note to her voice.
“Believe me,” Darcy said keeping her tone neutral, “this brings me no pleasure. Not any of it. And it’s none of my business. I know that. I know it’s personal between you and Willow. I came here to support her, but I’m going to leave now.” Darcy rose.
“No!” Willow cried.
“Stay if you want,” Autumn said. She made a mocking sound. “It might be helpful to me if you stayed. Willow needs to learn that she’s still a girl, not a woman. She’s not old enough to judge what women do.”
Darcy almost said, Not all women do what you do, but she bit her tongue. She sank back into the chair and waited.
Autumn took a moment to gather her thoughts. When she spoke, it was gentle, directed right to Willow.
“You know that photo I snapped of you eating a chocolate ice cream bar and reading a book? You were completely absorbed by that book. You didn’t see me come into the room. You didn’t even know you had dripped chocolate on your favorite shirt. You were really going after that chocolate ice cream like a starving child. You hadn’t combed your hair for hours and you had chocolate smeared on the end of your nose.”
“Oh, please,” Willow said in her most sarcastic voice, “don’t tell me you’re going to compare reading with sex.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing. Reading while eating chocolate ice cream, to be exact. You were caught up in a world of your own. You were indulging your mind and your senses. You sprawled in that chair with your legs hanging over the side and your head practically on the bottom cushion. I snapped a photo of you with my phone and you didn’t say a thing. You were in a zone.”
“But that’s different!” Willow protested.
“Maybe. I could pull up that photo I took of you, the one that you wanted me to delete when you saw it the next day. You couldn’t believe what a slob you were. Ice cream on your face, on your clothes? Sex is like that, only more intense. It’s body and mind. It takes you into a world of your own.”
Darcy turned her face away from Willow, unable to hide her smile. Autumn was amazing, really, coming up with this comparison.
“Okay, then,” Willow persisted, “but don’t you have that with Boyz? He is your husband! You’re supposed to be faithful to him!”
“Boyz is my husband,” Autumn agreed quietly. “And you have no idea about the kind of pacts and compromises we have created to make our marriage work.”