When Perry and Amelia had finally been admitted, it was an arrival of sorts. The fruition of a dream Perry had harbored since childhood. And today, on the rare occasion he was home, was the perfect day to spend in peace and quiet at the Club. But instead Jake had insisted the whole family go boating on the lake.
This struck Perry as highly amusing since Jake was the only member of the family who did not technically live on the lake or own a boat. Even Phoebe’sshackwas on the water. “So kind of Jake to invite us out on our own lake and to use our own boat with him today,” he mused out loud.
“Oh, stop. It’ll be nice to be out with the whole family.”
Perry had to give his wife credit. Amelia had grown up as an only child and found his vocal and intrusive family both entertaining and comforting. Perry knew what the day held in store: everyone would argue about where to go and what to do. And once they got to wherever they finally agreed to go, they’d tie the boats together and the kids would hop between the two like forest monkeys, in and out, littering the clean carpeted floor with peanut butter and jelly and juice boxes and whatever other sticky snacks Phoebe allowed her boys to eat. Everyone would talk at once, right over the top of one another. There’d be at least one debate, one spill of something that stained, and at least one howling cry for Band-Aids. Perry cringed just imagining what awaited him.
At least the weather was good. Perry put on his sunglasses, and they taxied out into the shoals to meet the rest of the family. Thejoke among lakegoers was that it was better to have friends who had boats than to own one yourself. But Perry had grown up in a boating family. When he was growing up on the lake, his parents had owned a motorboat, and all three of the Goodwin kids had learned to water-ski at an early age. It was a rite of passage at thirteen to take the Candlewood Lake water safety course and get your boater’s license. Of the three of them, Jake had been the most eager. Phoebe was lazy; she loved the idea of going out on the water with friends, but she didn’t like the hassle of the work involved. They could always tell when she’d been the one to use the boat last because the cover was never replaced correctly or the ties were done too loosely. Eventually her social life got the best of her, and she resorted to asking Perry to drive her and her friends around while they sunbathed and gossiped and sipped Bud Light from pilfered cans. For Jake, the boat was one endless summer party. Once out on the water, he’d be gone all day. But he always returned the boat with care, tying it neatly to the dock, snapping the covers tight and never leaving a trace of the fun Perry knew he’d enjoyed out there. The eleven-mile-long lake ran along several town borders, and Jake seemed to know just about everyone from the tip of Sherman’s shallow waters to New Fairfield, Brookfield, and beyond.
Perry marveled that just about each teenage boater they passed waved and called out for his sibling. When it was just Perry alone on the water and a boat full of teenage girls drew up alongside him, he couldn’t help but feel offended by the disappointed expressions on the girls’ faces as soon as they realized it was him, and not Jake, at the helm. Perry recalled the time a group of Phoebe’s friends had gone out in the boat with him. Jake was at the wheel, but Perry didn’t mind; cute Tricia Schneider in her peach bikini had seated herself next to him. Jake was doing allthe talking, pointing out the sights and waving to passersby like he owned the lake. At one point Tricia put her hand on Perry’s knee and leaned in close to whisper in his ear. Perry had blushed, eager to hear what she had to say. “Your brother is so funny,” she’d gushed. “Is he dating anyone?”
Jake, whom Perry hadn’t even realized was listening, had turned around from his position at the wheel and winked at her. “You tell me.”
Well, now Perry was the one out on the lake with his beautiful wife and daughter, in their beautiful boat.
“How long are we going to be out here, anyway?” Emma shouted over the whir of the motor. Immediately Perry deflated.
“Long enough to have fun,” he said, trying to sound convincing.
In the distance, Perry spotted his parents’ pontoon boat creeping along the shoreline. Amelia leaned forward from where she was sitting on the bench and squeezed his elbow. In spite of himself, Perry smiled. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad, after all.
When they pulled up alongside the pontoon, the first thing he noticed was Olivia’s crimson bathing suit.
This pained him. Perry was a heterosexual man who’d appreciated the physical nature of female beauty since adolescence. It was science. But Perry had never taken that as license to ogle women. Especially as a devoted husband. Besides, one thing he’d learned in his adult life was that it was fleeting. The most obviously alluring face on a crowded sidewalk could be made ugly by a curt eye roll at the homeless man in the doorway. Just as he now appreciated a different kind of beauty; a loveliness in the hand that guided a shy child into a classroom, or in the doting look of an old man gazing at his wife on the train. As Perry aged, his perception of beauty had altered.
He could hardly blame Olivia’s swimsuit, a faded, modest one-piece that suggested little. And yet there was the round swell of her small breasts. Just above which her wide brown eyes seemed to smile, even from a distance. Perry looked away from her smile. He busied himself with the tying up of his boat to theirs, in the passing of coolers and picnic baskets. He did not redirect the kids as they scrambled into his pristine new boat. Nor did he open a beer and clink bottles with Jake and his father and Rob, who looked like he really needed his.Focus, he chastised himself, as he climbed onto the pontoon with the rest of his family.
“How’s the house going?” Perry asked Rob.
“What’s going are the sill beams.” He took a deep swig of beer. “Every rotten one of them.”
Phoebe wasted no time in chiming in. “Which, as it turns out, is quite common in older houses.”
Perry didn’t dare comment on the “old” part. The old house was already theirs. Along with its old sill.
“Yikes. What’s that going to cost you?” Amelia asked.
Perry shot her a look.
“What?” she said. “We’re family.”
“Indeed, we are,” Rob said. “And getting closer every day. Did you hear we may move in with your folks?” He held up his beer as if toasting, but his expression said otherwise.
Perry’s gaze swiveled to his mother. “They’re moving in with you and Nana?” Jane, who was holding a mimosa, tipped it back like a spring break tequila shot and feigned interest in a distant shorebird.
“Since it’s going to take a few more weeks than we thought. And about ten thousand more dollars,” Rob added.
Phoebe looked wounded. “Eight,” she interjected. “Only eight.And no one is moving anywhere just yet. It’s merely a backup plan.” She slumped against the bench.
“Do you guys need help moving stuff into Mom and Dad’s?” Jake asked. Leave it to Jake to keep things moving in the wrong direction.
No one replied.
“What about Nana?” Perry asked. He had a startling vision of toys scattered underfoot and his nephews thundering up and down the hall at the crack of dawn as she tried to sleep. Of the noise, the mess, the extra mouths to feed for his parents. What was Phoebe thinking?
Jane snapped back to attention. “We’ll ask the visiting nurse to increase her hours. It’s only temporary.”
“Ifwe move in,” Phoebe stressed. “It’s not like it’s decided.”
