Page 49 of Bad Summer People
“It’s a real shame,” said Robert. “I loved working with her at the courts.” He got off the stool, leaving his beer half-full on the bar. “Well, I’m off. Going to have an early night in front of the TV. Brian, Lauren, enjoy the rest of the show.” He went out into the evening, leaving the other pair awkwardly hovering together.
Lauren wasn’t quite sure what else to say. She couldn’t comprehend how she’d gotten into this situation. She was an upstanding, law-abiding Upper East Side mom. She was a class parent at Braeburn Academy! She thought back to that night, the chaos and confusion. She still didn’t know exactly what had happened or why Susan had been there in the first place.
Here’s what she did know: She and Jen had followed Jason and Sam up Neptune after they’d spotted them in the playground. They’d reached them right above Harbor. Sam was shouting at Jason, waving a knife at him in an almost comically menacing way. Both men were soaked through. Lauren understood Sam’s anger—Jason had betrayed Sam in the most hurtful of ways. Jen’s actions could also be explained. Jen wasbored and unhappy. Those were feelings Lauren could relate to. But Jason, ugh, what thefuckwas wrong with him? Lauren had suddenly been super pissed. Sure, she was also having an affair, but at least she went out of their friend circle to do it! What Jason had done was inexcusable. How could they ever come to Salcombe again if anyone found out? Jason was such a selfish prick. She’d felt something come over her, the same something she’d felt during her fight with Beth Ledbetter. Rage.
“Jason!” she’d screamed. Both men turned to look at her. She ran toward her husband blindly, pushing him with all her strength, tightening her Pilates-toned core as she did. He’d stumbled backward, caught by surprise by his 110-pound wife. At that unlucky moment, a bike had come flying into the scene. Jason had crashed into it, breaking his fall, sending the rider sailing off the boardwalk, three feet down onto the wet, hard ground. Lauren heard a crunch as it landed. Jen shrieked.
Lauren ran to the edge of the boardwalk and saw an old woman lying at an impossible angle, her bike on top of her. She wasn’t moving. Sam was the first to reach Lauren’s side; she’d felt the heat of his body next to her, his heaving breaths.
“It’s Susan. Susan Steinhagen,” he’d said. “It’s her tracksuit.”
Lauren couldn’t look. She wouldn’t. Instead, she’d glanced up the boardwalk. About twenty feet north, she’d seen a man paused on his bike, feet on the ground, still as stone. Robert. What was he doing there? No more than a second passed before he’d turned his bike around and rode back toward Lighthouse. She’d lost sight of him in the night. She didn’t think anyone else had spotted him.
“We have to get out of here,” Jen said, pulling Lauren’s raincoat sleeve.
“I think she’s dead,” said Jason.
Sam climbed down and felt for a pulse, taking care not to touch the bike as he did. “Nothing,” Sam said softly, scrambling back up to the boardwalk.
“Let’s separate and meet back at our house,” Jen said firmly. Lauren assumed this was the voice she used with her therapy patients. “This can’t get out. We’d all be ruined. Our children’s lives would be ruined. Let’s go down the darkest walks. Sam, you take West, Jason, you take Surf, Lauren, youtake Atlantic, and I’ll head down Neptune. No one go near Broadway; it has streetlamps. Walk quickly, but don’t run. Stay in the shadows. No one else will be out, but we don’t want anyone to see us from a window. The story, if anyone asks, is that we were having a family movie night at our house with the kids. The only people who know that’s not true are Luana and Silvia, and they won’t say anything. This never happened. It was a horrible accident.”
Jason and Sam nodded.
“Jason, you and I are finished,” Jen said. Lauren felt Jason flinch in the darkness. “Sam, I love you. I’ll see you at home.”
At that, Jen had turned and stalked off down the walk, leaving Lauren, Sam, and Jason reeling. They’d all met back at the house as instructed, changed into dry clothes, and watched the end ofToy Story 2with their children.
The next day, Lauren walked around concealed by lipstick and sunglasses, thinking every moment that the police would barge through the door to their $2.3 million beach home and arrest her. But no one came. And no one came the day after. The town was humming with the tragic news of Susan Steinhagen’s death. The tennis courts felt odd, like no one should be playing (everyone was still playing). There were whispers it was depression; she was still so devastated by Garry’s death that she’d ridden off the walk on purpose. What else could she have been doing out in that storm? Her friends set up a makeshift memorial; a group of them held candles one evening and walked from the tennis courts to the ferry dock, gathering on the bay beach, reading tributes into the night. Lauren had a macabre interest in attending, but Jason, smartly, forbade her from going. “It’s not for people our age. It will look strange,” he’d said. “Like when the serial killer hangs out at the scene of the crime.”
Lauren was hardly a serial killer! But she realized Jason was right. Things between them had thawed since that night. He’d seemed more interested in her than he had in years, asking her about her day, inquiring about the kids’ school preparations. Lauren wasn’t sure if it was because he knew for certain he’d never end up with Jen or that now they were bonded by an accidental death. Or maybe he’d been scared shitless by heranger. Either way, it was nice to not feel completely ignored. And therewassomething exciting about sharing a major secret. They’d had sex twice that week. That hadn’t happened in years.
“Introducing Amelie Parker and Myrna Metzner!” Lauren heard the emcee announce into the microphone. She waved bye to Brian and headed back into the big room, sitting next to Jason. The girls, cute as buttons, went onstage and launched into an impossibly loud version of “Let It Go.” Amelie twirled around as Myrna, tired, sat down. Everyone in the audience laughed and applauded when it was over.
Jason slipped his smooth, cool hand into Lauren’s. It felt like a stranger’s. She hadn’t told any of them about Robert being at the scene of Susan’s death; she never would. What would be the point?
She decided then that she wouldn’t see Robert in the city. That feeling she’d had tonight was just her body reacting to him, not her mind. Lauren Parker was nothing if not practical. This summer had been out of character for her, but she vowed to return to her normal ways. The sex with Robert was good, but she loved her life more. Anyway, she’d be too busy with her mom groups and her SoulCycle classes. She’d also decided to renovate their kitchen—it had been needing an update for years, and that was a project she could dive into.
Arlo and Rhenn took the stage, waving their wands, Arlo pulling out a twenty-foot handkerchief from his sleeve.
“They’re so sweet,” Jen whispered over her shoulder to Lauren.
Lauren wondered if she and Jen would remain as close as they’d become in the past month. Her other mom friendships felt thin, comparatively. Perhaps she’d have to commit murder with them, too. Lauren chuckled at her own twisted thoughts.
A few rows away, she saw Rachel get up and duck out of the side door. Lauren hadn’t spoken to her since that day, either. She didn’t know where Rachel had gone after she’d run from her and Jen, nor did she want to ask. They’d all kept their distance. Rachel could stew on her actions all she liked for all Lauren cared. It served her right to be friendless after what she’d done. Imagine purposefully trying to blow up someone’s marriage.
Was Rachel limping? Lauren watched as she opened the door andstepped out, clearly favoring her right foot. Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen Rachel on the tennis courts at all these past two weeks. Not that Lauren would have played with her. She wondered if she’d gotten injured somehow. Or, more likely, toppled over drunk and alone in her home. Oh well. Rachel was dead to her. No more supportive chats about how she’d eventually find a husband. No more pity invites. She could join Beth and Jeanette and the other Salcombe rejects from now on.
“It’s all an illusion!” Arlo shouted.
Rhenn threw a deck of cards in the air, scattering them over the stage. She gave Jason’s hand a squeeze and smiled at him. Another Salcombe summer in the books. Time to head home.
25Lisa Metzner and Emily Grobel
Lisa Metzner and Emily Grobel were on the same wavelength. They’d met years ago at the town library during an arts and crafts program for kids who were too small for day camp. Emily and Paul had finally finished building their new house that year, and Lisa and Brian had bought theirs that winter on the urging of one of Brian’s finance friends, Matt Hanon, who’d been coming out to Salcombe his whole life.
Neither woman quite knew what she was getting into, and on arrival, both felt overwhelmed by the town dynamics. They bonded that day over their confusion about how to book a tennis court. The system was complicated and involved little round tags, referred to as “chits,” with members’ last names printed on them. Every night at 7:00 p.m., the entire community arrived at the yacht club for “sign-up” for the next day’s courts, run by an intimidating woman named Susan Steinhagen. It entailed putting your family chit into a bowl and waiting until Susan pulled it out, bingo-style, and then shouted your last name. (Even if you were called dead last, you could usually get a court at noon, the hottest, worst time to play. But desperate times called for sweltering tennis games.)
That day, Lisa and Emily made a pact to figure it all out together, relieved to find another woman who A) hadn’t been in Salcombe forever and B) whose style she admired. They became an inseparable summer pair, to the point that people started to joke that they couldn’t tell them apart, even though Emily was a blonde and Lisa was a brunette. They did have a similar fashion sense and often ended up in variations of the sameoutfit—oversize dresses that accentuated their slenderness, cozy linen pants with silk tanks—which brought an elementary-school-best-friend comfort to them both. They joined forces with Lauren Parker and Rachel Woolf soon after, happy to have a little group with whom to get drinks and to sit on the beach and trash-talk others.
