Chapter 28

12:30 p.m. Sunday

"Did you have fun last night?" Camille asked, putting her own concerns aside to focus on her son – as she had done his entire life.

"I was about to ask you the same question," Andy said as he gave his mother the traditional kiss on the cheek.

"What do you mean?" Camille asked. She decided her sex life was none of Andy's business.

"Please," Andy said, rolling his eyes. "I saw your car in the parking lot this morning. It's in the lot outside now. I can put two and two together. You just couldn't stand the thought of sleeping in a different building from me, could you?"

"Andy!" Camille sputtered. Andy gave her his best grin and sat down beside her on the couch.

"It's fine, Mom," Andy said. "I just had to give you crap about it. I didn't mean to, I don't know, make it personal. You don't need to sneak around, I mean. OK?"

Camille let out a long breath and shook her head.

"Can we be serious for a minute?" Andy said. "I want to talk to you about a few things before I put the clothes in the wash."

"Did something happen?" Camille asked urgently.

Andy shook his head.

"I think I finally understand what you were trying to tell me last week," Andy said. "You know, when you told me that Regan was looking for an 'all-encompassing sort of love.' I'm sorry I was such a butthole when you were just trying to point out something I didn't see."

"It's OK," Camille said, slumping back against the cushions.

"It's a pretty awesome responsibility, isn't it?" Andy asked. The question was for his mother's benefit as much as his. He had seen the looks Evan had shot Camille while the group was posing for pictures.

"It's a tremendous responsibility," Camille agreed.

"It's something you weren't prepared for when you were my age," Andy continued. "Is that what you were trying to get across to me?"

Camille stared at Andy for a long moment.

"I guess it was," she answered.

"Are you more prepared for it now?" Andy wondered.

"Did Evan call you?" Camille asked, anger evident in her tone.

"He didn't need to call me," Andy said. "Anyone with eyes could see it last night. I finally understood what you were telling me when I saw Regan looking like me in the exact same way at the dance. It scared me for a minute ... the thought that I had that sort of power over someone else. I finally understood that I could crush her with just a word or a gesture – even one that I don't mean or didn't intend."

"You're not the type to do that," Camille said.

"Neither are you," Andy countered, "but you did it to Evan when he asked you to marry him."

Camille felt tears come to her eyes and she looked away so Andy wouldn't see them.

"Don't run away again," Andy said. "If you don't feel the same way about him, you owe him a real explanation this time. If you do feel the same way, don't let him go again. That's all I wanted to say."

Andy started to stand but Camille took his hand to keep him in place.

"What about you and Regan?" she asked.

"We're good," Andy said. "Like I said, it's a little scary but I recognize it. I've had a pretty good guide – a lot better one than you got stuck with."

"Did you... ?" Camille asked in spite of herself.

"No," Andy answered. "But it was a good night. Like you, I got a real look at just how powerful Regan's pedigree is. I thought I knew until I got a firsthand look."

"At the dinner party?" Camille asked. Andy hadn't seemed out of sorts when she saw him before the dance but she knew he could put on a good face if he needed to. It was another lesson he had learned from her, she knew.

"That was actually a lot of fun," Andy said with a laugh. "Rita and Robert were very entertaining – and Ruth is a hoot. My God, Mom, someday I will tell you all about her – but not soon. No, it was at the dance when I got my lesson in power – Part Two."

"Part Two?" Camille inquired.

"The first was what I just told you about earlier," Andy said. "The second came when a couple Prep School douches started to give me a rough time."

Camille's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Regan made a two-minute phone call and ten minutes later, the guys came over to apologize," Andy continued. "Rita went on the warpath and threatened Hell on Earth to any family that gave me a second's worth of grief. I guess those dances are used for sort of family-to-family networking and Rita put the word on the whole lot of them. Oh, and you'll never guess who I ran into."

Camille blinked at the swift change in topic but shrugged.

"Who?" she asked.

"Trini Littledove!" Andy said with a smile. "She goes to C-B. Can you believe that?"

"She was always a very smart girl," Camille noted. "How is her brother? Gus, isn't it?"

"He's the same," Andy said, his smile faltering.

"I will assume that her father is also the same," Camille added, her facial expression mirroring her son's.

"It sounds like it," Andy admitted. "She had to leave the after-party early because she had to be home. Gus' injury has made things even tenser at their house. Oh, and she and Gus egged Grandma's house when they heard what she did."

"I knew I liked that girl!" Camille said with a laugh. "I thought about burning the damned place to the ground but I figured she'd make more on insurance than she could by selling it. So, Trini is doing well?"

"Really well," Andy said. "She's off to Berkeley in the fall. She's looking forward to the freedom."

"Does she live at home now?" Camille wondered.

"She's on-campus but she has to go home every weekend," Andy said. "Her father is worried that his little girl is going to ruin her future by running off with some guy."

"Like Becky," Camille said sadly.

"You knew about her?" Andy asked.

"Honey, everyone knew about her – except Henry Littledove," Camille answered. "That girl was trouble from the time she was a little girl. You were just a baby when her parents sent her to live with Henry. The story I heard was that she was ... behaving inappropriately with boys – and she was only seven or eight years old. It wasn't much of a surprise when she ran away and got pregnant at 13."

"She ran away?" Andy wondered. He vaguely remember the girl but Katrina hadn't mentioned that she'd run away from home.

"Hitchhiked to Wyoming," Camille said. "She was turning tricks at a truck stop when the cops found her. They brought her back to Henry's house and six months later she was pregnant. It was a pretty big scandal – especially to your grandmother. She was tickled that my transgression was pushed to the side."

"I was a scandal?" Andy asked.

"No, honey," Camille said, looking lovingly at her son. "No one in town was the least bit nasty – except your grandmother and the local parish priest. Everyone accepted you."

"Except Henry Littledove," Andy replied. "You know, until you said his name just now, I always assumed it was 'Mister.' That's all I'd ever heard him called – even by Grandpa."

"That was a sign of respect," Camille told him. "When the Littledoves bought the farm, that caused a scandal."

"Why?" Andy asked.

"They're Native Americans," Camille answered as though the answer was obvious. "I was still in high school when they moved in. That was before Trini and Gus arrived. They were the first non-white family in the area. That caused some uproar. You remember how people are out that way."

"Christ, Mom, the Littledoves have more claim to that land that any white person in the world!" Andy said angrily.

"Which is almost exactly what Dad said," Camille replied, nodding her approval. "The locals just called Henry 'Littledove.' Dad always called him 'Mister Littledove.' I know Henry told him a hundred times to call him Henry or Hank but Dad always said that he was guaranteed that one family in the area would always treat his family with respect. Dad was Mr. Drayton; Henry was always Mr. Littledove. You know, Henry used to laugh when you'd call him Mister. Of course, that's before he caught you kissing his little girl."

"Yep, she told me last night that I'd ruined her for other guys," Andy said, polishing his fingernails against his shirt.

"Oh, I'm sure," Camille laughed. "You were such a little brat. She probably thinks all guys act like you and she wants nothing to do with them!"

"Well, she doesn't want anything to do with guys," Andy said, leaning in and lowering his voice conspiratorially.

"Oh, my," Camille said, her hand covering her mouth.

"Yep," Andy said with a nod. "Mr. Littledove doesn't know so don't mention it to him."

"It isn't like I go out for visits," Camille said.

"Oh, yeah, uh... ," Andy said, looking uncomfortable, "Regan is planning a big graduation party at her house. She'll want you to come, of course. And he plans to invite the Littledoves – including Gus. It will be the Sunday after our graduations."

"Graduations?" Camille asked, stressing the plural.

"Our ceremonies are the same day," Andy told her.

"I'm sorry," Camille replied with genuine regret. "I'm sure you were hoping the other could attend."

"We're going to work it out," Andy said. "Hers is at 11; mine isn't until eight. It'll be tight but we'll make it work. I can probably convince Rita to rent a helicopter for me if traffic looks bad."

Camille's mouth dropped and it wasn't until Andy broke out in laughter that she realized she was joking.

"Evan would probably be willing to foot the bill," she said.

Andy stood and leaned over to kiss his mother on the cheek again.

"I'm going to start the laundry," he said before his voice turned serious. "Think about what I told you."

Camille nodded but didn't tell him it was the thing foremost in her thoughts for the past few days.

"So, honestly, what went on last night?" Regan asked when Joy and Ruth were alone in her room.

"Do you want a play-by-play?" Ruth asked with a giggle.

"Well, we gave him a two-girl hummer to start the festivities," Joy cut in, also laughing.

"I don't want the gory details!" Regan insisted. "It's just ... well, he told Andy and Paul that you just slept. You told Elizabeth and me..."

"That we had sex," Ruth supplied.

"Chris was being a gentleman," Joy said, biting her lower lip. She gave Ruth a look and the other girl nodded. Joy pulled out her phone and unlocked the photo gallery. She held it up to show a picture she had taken in the mirror. There was a guy on the bed but his face hidden. The only thing Regan could readily identify was Ruth's butt. She was standing up on the bed. There was an arm holding a phone wrapped around her waist but all that was visible of the second girl was her shoulders. Her face was hidden but the top of her head was obviously right at Ruth's crotch.

Regan stared at the picture for a minute before Joy flipped to the next one. In this one, Ruth and Joy could be seen clearly in the mirror. The pose resembled the one that Regan had pictured in her mind: Ruth was astride the guy's midriff and Joy had her knees on either side of the guy's face.