Page 53 of Bad Summer People
“I’ll tell you what I know,” said Rachel, stroking Sam’s lovely cheeks. If only she could convince him to stay there forever.
“I was out that night at the Anchor Inn. I’d gone there alone to get away from all of you. I couldn’t face anyone. I was too ashamed.”
Sam nodded. He put his hand on her back and began tracing letters, something he’d done to her the summer they were together.
“I was drunk. It was terrible out, and I didn’t want to go home in the storm. Robert walked into the bar at some point and was acting weird. He told me he’d been looking for someone, but not who it was. Then he dragged me out of there. We rode back to Salcombe, which took forever, but instead of turning on Marine, he kept going on Lighthouse, and I followed him. He stopped right in front of Susan’s house and started banging on her side door.”
Sam’s eyes widened. “You went to Susan’s house?” he asked incredulously.
Rachel nodded. “Well, I didn’t go. I just followed Robert, and he didn’t know I was trailing him. He was in a state.”
“Did he go inside?”
“No, he couldn’t get in. And then Susan ran out through the front door, got on her bike, and took off.”
Sam sat up and reached for his boxers. Rachel suddenly felt very exposed. She grabbed her robe off her side chair and put it on, walking back to the bed. Sam watched her closely.
“Did you hurt your ankle?”
Rachel hesitated. Should she tell him everything? “Well, I was drunk. I told you. And it was windy.”
“Did you fall off the boardwalk that night?”
“I did. And Robert helped me home.”
“What else happened?”
Sam was standing now, naked except for his underwear. His curly hair was sticking up straight from his head. He’d put his glasses back on. He seemed jumpy.
“Nothing happened. I didn’t see anything else,” said Rachel.
“And Robert gave no indication as towhyhe was looking for Susan?”
Rachel remembered that Sam was a lawyer. He was looking for holes in her story.
“No, none.” She wasn’t lying. “He rode after her down Neptune, andI fell off the boardwalk. The next thing I knew, he was lifting me up and walking me home. I don’t know what happened in between.”
“You didn’t see anyone else that night?” He left the question dangling in the air. She shook her head. She didn’t want to be involved. She didn’t care what had happened! Susan was dead, end of story. She wanted everything to return to the way it had been.
He sat close to her on her fluffy white comforter, rumpled from their recent sex. He grabbed the tie of her robe, gently unknotting it, opening the garment in the same way a doctor might. Rachel was very still. He moved his hands to her thighs, caressing them, inserting his fingers inside of her. She closed her eyes. He continued to touch her, slowly, than faster, faster, until she came, violently, shaking. She kept her eyes shut.
“You,” she said to him after a moment.
“Me?”
“Yes, I saw you. I saw you and Jen and Jason and Lauren, standing on Neptune, arguing. And I heard someone scream. But I didn’t see what happened. Did you kill her?”
Sam didn’t say anything. She opened her eyes. He was buttoning his shirt.
“I love you,” she said. She felt herself starting to cry. She missed her dad.
“Never tell anyone about this. Never. About us, but also about what you saw. It’ll just be our secret, forever. And we can do this”—he gestured at her bed—“whenever you’d like. Jen’s not the only one who can cheat.”
Rachel felt a flood of happiness. He was hers.
“I won’t tell. Don’t worry. And so you know, I told Beth Ledbetter that Susan had been depressed and that it might have been suicide.”
“Good girl.” He kissed her on the head, put his jeans on, and was off. She lay down, exhausted. She smelled the spot next to her, inhaling Sam’s cologne.
