Jenna’s spot in the bed was unoccupied.
Margot said, “Eleanor, stop that this instant. That bed is ancient, and you will break it!”
Ellie launched herself off the bed and crashed onto the braided rug.
Margot said, “Well, now the whole house is awake.”
Ellie said, “Can I go up and see the boys?”
“No,” Margot said. “I need you to do something quiet. Get your iPod and go downstairs.”
“My iPod is boring,” Ellie said.
“I don’t care,” Margot said. “I have to talk to your Auntie Jenna.”
Ellie folded her arms across her chest. She was still in her bathing suit, still salt-and-sand encrusted from yesterday’s trip to the beach. The Department of Social Services was sure to arrive at any moment.
“I want to stay and listen,” Ellie said.
“It’s adult stuff,” Margot said. There was a part of her that believed Ellie should stay and listen. After all, Ellie would one day grow up to be a woman. It might not be a bad idea for her to learn now, at the tender age of six, that the world was a complicated place, that other people’s minds could not be read, their emotions could not be predicted, that love was fleeting and capricious, that once you thought you’d figured everything out, something would happen to prove you wrong. Life was a mystery, and nobody knew what happened when we died.
“I don’t care,” Ellie said. “I want to listen.”
“Downstairs,” Margot said.
“No,” Ellie said.
Margot closed her eyes. She was feeling the drinks from the night before, which brought around thoughts of kissing Griff and her treachery and Edge’s impending arrival. Margot’s hands trembled. She set her coffee down on the dresser and sighed. “Okay, go upstairs with the boys, then.”
Ellie let out a whoop, then did a pirouette across the floor. Thank God for Mme Willette’s ballet class; it was the only thing keeping Ellie from turning into a wild Indian.
Margot said, “Where did Auntie Jenna go?”
Ellie said, “Bathroom.”
Margot grabbed her coffee and lay back on the bed, propping herself up against the pillows. The sheets were filled with sand.
What am I going to say? she wondered.
When she’d sat next to Jenna on the front stairs the night before and asked why she was crying, Jenna had told her she was calling the wedding off.
“What?”
“I’m not getting married,” Jenna said.
“Why not?” Margot said.
“Stuart lied to me,” Jenna said.
“He lied to you?” Margot said. That didn’t sound like Stuart. Stuart was as square a peg as had ever lived. He hadn’t even wanted a bachelor party. What man didn’t want a bachelor party? Drum Sr.’s bachelor party in Cabo had included more people than had attended their wedding and had lasted longer than their honeymoon.
Jenna’s lower lip trembled, and she sucked it in the way she used to when she was a little girl. “He was engaged before,” she said.
“What?” Margot said.
“To Crissy Pine,” Jenna said. “His girlfriend from college. He was engaged to her for five weeks! Helen told me, Helen who used to be his stepmother. The woman in the yellow dress tonight.”
Margot’s brain felt like it was going to short-circuit. She didn’t know how to process this information. “Five weeks isn’t very long, Jenna. Five weeks is nothing. It’s negligible.”
“He lied to me!” Jenna said. “He was engaged before! He never told me!”
“You found this out from Helen?” Margot said. “Chance’s mother?”
“It was the first time I ever met her,” Jenna said. “She and Stuart aren’t close; he was shocked his mother invited her. But nearly the first thing Helen said to me was that she was glad things worked out for Stuart this time. And I must have made a confused face because then she said, ‘Well, you know about his broken engagement to Crissy Pine?’ And I said no, and she leaned in conspiratorially, like we were girlfriends, and she said, ‘Stuart was engaged to Crissy Pine for five weeks, and after he broke it off, she refused to return his great-grandmother’s diamond ring.’ ” Jenna was in full-blown tears now. “He gave her his great-grandmother’s ring!”
Margot blinked. Why couldn’t people keep their mouths shut? What did Helen think would be gained by breaking this news to Jenna the evening before her wedding? Did it give her some awful sense of accomplishment?
Margot said, “Helen is an iffy source. She might be lying. Or exaggerating.”
“I confronted Stuart!” Jenna said. “He admitted it was true. He proposed to Crissy, he gave her his great-grandmother’s ring, he broke it off five weeks later, and she was so mad that she never gave the ring back. She still has it!”