Page 14 of Bad Summer People
Lauren laughed. Maybe she could enjoy this newfound power. The four women dispersed, each going to check on their brood before heading back to the action. Amelie and Arlo were fine—they were in the playground now, playing freeze tag with a group of kids. Lauren decided to walk home—she’d left her bike up there—and so headed up Neptune boardwalk toward the beach. She needed a moment alone before rejoining the merriment. She wasn’t sure how she was going to explain the Beth incident to Jason; he hated when she lost her temper, even when it was just the two of him. The boardwalk was deserted and quiet. The whole town was at the field. Lauren heard footsteps approaching and then felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see Robert, alone. He was wearing fresh tennis clothes, his tan reflecting off his white Reebok shirt.
“How are you? I saw you got in a fight or something,” he said. “Who was that woman? Are you okay?”
He was looking at her with genuine concern. Lauren hadn’t felt that kind of attention in ages. It was marvelous.
“Oh, she’s just the town bitch, Beth Ledbetter. I think you teach her daughter.”
Robert shook his head. “I’m still so new. I feel like everyone here has ancient history together.” Had he followed her?
“Do you want to come see my house?” Lauren asked. She was feeling brave and strange. The Beth incident had unlocked something, though she wasn’t yet sure what that was. “It’s right there,” she said, pointing to it, a two-minute walk away.
Robert hesitated.
“No one’s there,” she said, making it even awkwarder. It was past noon, and Jason had a tennis match. The kids were with Silvia at the field.
“Okay,” said Robert.
He didn’t say anything else, just followed Lauren as she walked to her beautiful gray beach home, past the bike rack with Lauren’s light pink cruiser parked in it, and up the wooden staircase to the entrance. It was an upside-down house; the bedrooms were on the first floor and the kitchen and living areas on the second, which had the better ocean views. Lauren opened the screen door and felt Robert’s hand run down her neck, landing all the way, firmly, on the small of her back. She didn’t turn around, just led him through the hallway, lined with framed family pictures from past Salcombe summers, and into her bedroom, decorated in beachy, upscale hues of Hamptons blue and white. They stopped at the bed, and Lauren turned to face Robert. He took both of her shoulders and gently pushed her down.Thank you, Beth,Lauren thought as Robert took off his shirt.
“Stay there,” he said.
8Beth Ledbetter
Beth Ledbetter was a victim. That’s how she saw herself, at least. The other women in Salcombe targeted her for no apparent reason. She hadn’t done anything to them! She had every right to exist and play tennis and go to the yacht club. She’d been here longer than all of them, except for Rachel Woolf, that ass-kissing cunt. Rachel was obsessed with getting Lauren and Lisa and Emily to like her.
Beth couldn’t be bothered to win over those cliquey bitches. She had her own friends, including Mollie and Jeanette and Jessica, and that’s all she needed. She didn’t have to be the most popular person in town. She’d never been popular. But she’d thought, perhaps stupidly, that by spending years away from Salcombe, she could come back and have a fresh start. Not be thought of as “Beth Taubman.” She was a grown-up now, not the girl who was always picked last for the kickball games and teased by the boys about her stick legs.
Instead, she arrived at a town ruled by Lauren Parker, Jason Parker’s glamorous ice queen wife, who was never going to let Beth in her crowd. Beth had met women like this before. They didn’t like her vibe or the way she dressed. They hated that, unlike, say, Rachel, Beth pushed back when someone tried to take advantage of her. Beth wouldn’t just shut up and take it, and that killed Lauren, who was used to operating without challenges.
Beth fumed as she rode home from the July 4 games. Lucy was still there, playing with Hazel Davidson, Mollie’s daughter. Mollie was watching them both. Beth felt queasy from the midday beer and hot dog; when she got back to the house, she’d pack a small bowl, just to calm down her stomach. She and Lauren had gotten in a fight, a real fight, and now she’d have to deal with the fallout.
She thought about what she was going to say to Kevin. She’d just deny the whole thing. Say that Lauren had started it.
Beth saw Jeanette Oberman riding toward her on her rusty green bike. She slowed down and waved at her to stop. Jeanette, too short to pause on her bike with her feet touching the boardwalk, stepped off and put down her kickstand. She was in short shorts and a black bikini top, her breasts perched inside precariously.
Beth knew Jeanette was a mess—the split with Greg, the slutty wardrobe, the drinking. But Jeanette seemed to like her, so that was enough.
“You’ll never believe what just happened.” Beth was eager to get her side of the story out as soon as possible.
Jeanette, nodding, was happy to help.
“Lauren just went ballistic on me, for no reason whatsoever. The girls apparently had some little spat, and Lauren came marching up to me at the firehouse and literally almost punched me. You can ask Mollie. She screamed at me and called me a bitch.”
“No,” Jeanette replied. She shook her head dramatically, and her breasts shook, too.
“Iknow,” said Beth. “I really think there’s something wrong with her. Like, I could have called security on her, it was that deranged. Brian had to stop her from physically hurting me.”
“That’s insane. Over a five-year-olds’ fight? I’m just happy you’re okay,” said Jeanette. “Imagine if she’d actually hit you!”
“It was close,” said Beth. “Okay, I have to get home and calm down. I’ll see you later at the club. I just feel a little shaky right now.”
“I get it,” said Jeanette, getting back on her bike. “Someone needs to teach that woman a lesson. She can’t get away with that! I’ll see you later.” Jeanette rode off toward the field, and Beth continued toward her house.
Kevin would probably be upstairs on his computer. He hated that he didn’t have his preferred gaming setup in Salcombe—that ugly blackleather chair and all those annoying monitors. He hadn’t been like this when they’d met eight years ago (on Tinder—a fact Beth didn’t disclose to anyone). He’d loved video games, sure, and had been up-front about that. Most guys liked video games, right? But over the years, it had turned into a kind of mania. You couldn’t pay him to play with Lucy, no way. Kevin ran IT at a virtual reality company, which wasn’t very lucrative, but Beth’s dad had money, so they were fine. He was either working or gaming. He barely even looked at her. Beth had to do everything alone. He wouldn’t come to the club with her for drinks, he didn’t participate in any of the town activities, he wouldn’t go near the tennis courts.
Beth felt like a single mother, though she’d never have expressed that to her friends. It was too humiliating.
She pulled into her little red house on the corner of Harbor and Pacific and looked up to see Kevin in the window of their upstairs sunporch, sitting in front of his computer, eyes glazed. Beth sighed. She was looking forward to her bowl. She’d take a hit, sink into the couch, and plot revenge against Lauren Parker.
