“Dad! That’s so rude.” Lee cut a glance to the mirror above her dressing table. Was her jawline a bit rounder than usual? She wasn’t sure.
“Stop looking at yourself,” said Winston. “I’m saying I miss you. Let’s go for a drive. Practice starts in thirty minutes.”
“I told you I’m done with swimming,” said Lee. “I’m going to be an actress, Dad.”
“Is that right?” said Winston.
“Yes.”
“Okay, then,” said Winston. He stood in front of her for a moment, and then said, “God gave you those looks. Don’t blow it.”
When Winston killed himself, Lee knew it was her fault. He’d done it in her bathroom, after all. Why hadn’t she gone for a drive with her father? He’d needed her and she had let him down.
She vowed to stay beautiful. She would not be abandoned again. She would become so famous that she would always be loved.
—
LEE BURST OUT OFGreek waves, her face hot. From the floating dock, the man waved. He looked a bit feral under the bright sunlight—skinny as a drug addict, his crooked teeth bared. Suddenly, Lee didn’t want to swim to him. She treaded water, felt her blood thump through her body. “Yoo-hoo!” cried the man.
“Yoo-hoo,” said Lee.
“Come to me, you gorgeous creature!” said Pete.
Lee didn’t know how to say no.
LULLED BY THE SOUNDof the waves and the warmth of the sun, Charlotte fell deep into a dream of lying on a beach towel as the man on the cover of her book,Taming Zeus,rubbed tanning oil all over her body. When Cord shook her awake, she was immediately embarrassed, her body still pulsing with want.
“The first bus is leaving,” said Cord. “I didn’t want to wake you, but we’re ready to go.”
“Hmm,” said Charlotte, pulling herself regretfully from the dream world where Zeus, holding a bottle of Bain de Soleil, remained. Lee, Cord, and a complete stranger stared down at Charlotte.
“I’m Pete,” said the stranger in a British accent. Charlotte took in his bony physique and tattered swim trunks.
“Pleased to meet you,” she said.
“So, Mom, are you ready?” said Lee. “If we go now, we can take a walk through old town Rhodes.”
“It’s actually Rhodes’s Old Town,” said Pete. “Not to be persnickety.” He chortled, and Charlotte frowned.
“I never knew you to be interested in history, dear,” she said.
“There’s wicked shopping,” said the stranger too eagerly. “Castle paperweights. Totes, tees, sarongs. Quite something, really. You feel like you’re back in the Ottoman Empire, wandering through passageways, getting lost in it all. Like a sultan. Like you’re Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. And also, mugs.”
Wandering through passageways getting lost in it all sounded downright frightening to Charlotte—she spent too much time already wondering if she was losing her mind. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said.
“Sometimes, I wish I were a sultan, to be honest,” said the stranger.
“Who doesn’t?” sighed Cord, who was holding a nearly empty beer bottle.
“I don’t,” said Charlotte. “And if it’s all the same to you, I’m going to stay here and enjoy the beach.” Lee and Cord exchanged a glance that they thought Charlotte wouldn’t see, though her vision was still intact. “I’ll befine,” said Charlotte.
“I don’t know, Mom…” said Cord. “I feel like a jerk leaving without you.”
“She’ll be fine,” said Lee. “Won’t you, Mom?”
At least Lee had put her top on. Charlotte smiled sweetly and said, “Of course, darlings.”
“Where’s Regan?” said Lee. “That’s our sister,” she explained to leering Pete.
