(5/10) Sea Change (23 page)

“Because they wanted you to figure it out?”

“Probably.”

“And stop it,” Jenn said.

“Which I did,” Jesse said.

“Do you know how Florence died?”

“Sort of,” Jesse said.

Jenn waited.

“For whatever reason, after all this time,” Jesse said, “Florence decided to stop being Daddy’s girl. They had some kind of confrontation about it. The old man never quite says. And she went off and made the video with her sisters and sent it to him.”

“Some kind of perverted kiss-off,” Jenn said.

“I guess,” Jesse said. “He sent it on to Darnell. Plum never quite told me why. Then, he says, he drove up here to reconcile. They always liked sailing, the mother says. So Florence rented a boat, packed a picnic, and they went off for a romantic sail, during which time they argued, and he threw her in the water, and sailed off.”

“And he didn’t know where she’d gotten the boat so he just put it the first place he saw.”

“Probably,” Jesse said.

“God, it’s like a lovers’ quarrel,” Jenn said.

“Except he was careful to give himself a cover story and drive all the way so there’d be no record of him with the airlines.”

Jenn put her fork down and looked at Jesse for a long silent moment.

“Which means he planned to do it before he left,” Jenn said.

“Un-huh.”

“My God,” Jenn said.

Jesse didn’t say anything.

“The other daughters?”

“Home with Mom,” Jesse said.

“You think they’ll get over this?”

“No.”

Jenn poured herself some wine.

“So he’s destroyed all his children,” Jenn said.

“And his wife let him,” Jesse said.

“How could she deny so much,” Jenn said.

“She needed to, I guess.”

Jenn took a sip of her wine.

“Have you talked with Dix about this?”

“Indirectly,” Jesse said.

“You’ve talked to him about how this affected you.”

“Yes.”

“Want to tell me?”

“It was so much about sex and so little about love,” Jesse said. “And I was already worried that with you I’m too much about sex anyway.”

Jenn listened without comment. Jesse went on.

“Dix says that it’s a kind of, what did he call it, amulet, I’ve created. If what I do can cause us to break up again, then the control is with me, because I can change. If it’s things you do…” Jesse shrugged.

“I guess you need to trust me a little more,” Jenn said. “Even if my track record isn’t so good.”

“It’s about both of us,” Jesse said. “Maybe I need to trust us both.”

Jenn smiled and sipped some wine.

Jesse watched her. “It’s been a year,” he said.

“I know.”

“I think I’ll try a glass of wine,” Jesse said.

“Like that?” Jenn said.

Jesse nodded.

“Maybe two,” he said.

“You think you should?” Jenn said. “You think you can?”

“Only one way to find out.”

“What if you can’t?”

“Then I’ll stop again,” Jesse said. “I’ve proved I can do that.”

“Have you talked to Dix about this?” Jenn said.

“Indirectly,” Jesse said.

Jenn looked at Jesse’s wineglass and grinned suddenly. He liked it when she grinned.

“You sure you want to waste it on wine?” Jenn said. “I could make you a scotch and soda.”

“I want to eat supper with you and drink two glasses of wine,” Jesse said.

“Maybe two,” Jenn said.

They looked at each other. Both of them nodded.

Jenn poured some wine into his glass, careful to make it a full glass, not to skimp as if she didn’t trust him.

“And,” Jenn said, “you should know that being too sexual with me is a great deal better than not being sexual enough.”

Jesse smiled.

“I’ll drink to that,” he said.