Page 10 of High Season
SEVEN
SIX WEEKS BEFORE THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
“You can’t seriously want to go, though?” said Josie.
She and Hannah were sitting on the very edge of the Draytons’ pool. On the terrace, Nina was engaged in an intense imaginary game of mummies and daddies, pretending to smoke a cigarette fashioned out of a cocktail straw.
“Why not?” said Hannah.
Josie screwed up her nose.
“Because it’ll be lame,” she said. “All those posh twats showing off about where they’re going on their gap years and which car their parents got them for their latest birthday. I’d be so bored I’d scream.”
“Oh, come on, that’s not what they’re like. Not all of them, anyway.”
“I hated it when we went to the beach with them last year. They all thought it was weird we were there. You could tell.”
“But we were invited.”
“ You were invited.”
“Blake said that you could come, too. He specifically mentioned you by name.”
“Well, aren’t I the lucky one?”
Josie put on a faux upper-class accent, sticking her chin up in the air.
“I am so thrilled that Master Blake deigned to invite me to his piss-up on the beach.”
Hannah nudged her friend, elbow in her ribs.
“Come on. You know what I mean.”
“You go by yourself. I’ll stay here and hang out with Nina.” Josie turned around to look at Nina. “Right, Nina? I’ll just hang out with you. My little best buddy.”
At the sound of her name, Nina bowled over and piled into Josie’s lap, wrapping her plump arms around her neck.
“Ouch,” Josie said, laughing. “You’re getting heavy.”
Although she always complained to her mum about Evelyn’s babysitting demands, Josie adored the youngest Drayton. Nina was smart and happy, in spite of her dysfunctional family. Josie liked spending summer days with her, teaching her to swim in the Draytons’ pool, or taking her down to the beach.
Josie would never say this out loud, but she really believed that Nina loved her, too.
She saw how Nina would look at her with the complete trust and uncomplicated adulation that only very small children have.
She liked how, unlike her mother and older siblings, Nina couldn’t see the rigid walls that separated them.
She didn’t understand that Josie was different from her.
She just saw the older girl who played with her, and made her snacks, and took her out of the house when Evelyn was on the warpath.
Josie always knew to do that; she remembered what it was like, being trapped with a parent whose rages sent the entire mood of the house swinging.
“Darling?”
A voice drifted from the other side of the patio.
Evelyn, swanning across the terrace toward them.
She wore a silk robe, even though it was early afternoon, and a large pair of sunglasses.
Her feet were bare, her hair looking slept-in.
A trail of violet smoke followed her, a cigarette clutched in one hand.
“Darling,” she said, vaguely in the direction of her daughter. “Have you had a nice swim?”
She didn’t seem to notice that Nina wasn’t wet, or that she was still wearing the same summer dress that Patricia had wrestled her into that morning. She didn’t wait for an answer.
“Have either of you seen Harrison?”
She directed the question toward Josie and Hannah.
“No,” Hannah said. “Sorry. I thought he was upstairs.”
“Hmm,” said Evelyn. “No.”
She sucked on her cigarette as if it was an oxygen tube.
“You’ve not seen Harrison, have you, Nina, sweetheart? You don’t know where Harrison’s gone?”
Nina’s mouth was a firm line, shut hard. She shook her head vigorously, her eyes wide.
“Fucker,” said Evelyn, beneath her breath.
For a second, she just stood there, swaying slightly. Her eyebrows furrowed as if she was trying to figure out the answer to a particularly complicated question.
“OK,” she said at last. “Well. You girls send him upstairs if you see him, won’t you?”
“Will do,” said Josie.
“Wonderful. Great. Well, you enjoy your swim.”
They watched as she walked unsteadily back toward the house.
“Jesus,” Josie said, under her breath. “She’s even worse than last year.”
“What do you mean?”
“What do I mean? Hannah, look at her. She’s a mess.” She glanced around to check that Nina wasn’t listening. “My mum reckons Harrison’s leaving her.”
“Seriously?”
Josie nodded.
“Apparently, people are saying that he’s met someone else, and everyone knows it. Evelyn’s in complete denial about it.”
“Shit.”
“Shit is right.”
Josie leaned back, her palms flat against the tiles.
“I reckon this’ll be the last summer that they’re all together. It’s kind of sad, actually, when you think about it. I think Evelyn genuinely thought that this was it , this time. And Nina hasn’t really known any other dad.”
A silence fell between them as they watched Nina play.
“Do you think Nina knows?”
“’Course not.”
“What about Blake? Do you think he knows?”
Josie groaned, and the moment was broken.
“Do you ever think about anything else?”
Hannah reached down into the water, flipping her hand across the surface to splash her friend.
“Hey!”
“Come to the party with me. Please.”
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Absolutely not.”
Josie reached down to splash Hannah back.
“Fine. But only for an hour. Two hours, tops.”
“Deal.”
“And Hannah?”
“Yeah?”
“Just… I don’t want you getting your hopes up too much with Blake, OK?”
She had seen it. The way that her friend looked at Blake Drayton. The way that she talked about him. She’d gently teased Hannah about it for months, but now, with the Draytons back for the season, the issue felt urgent. Josie couldn’t stand to see her friend getting hurt.
“People like him,” Josie said. “They don’t go for people like us.”
Hannah shrugged.
“I’m not getting my hopes up,” she said. “It’s only a party. But I think it’ll be fun.”