That Summer by Jennifer Weiner (free e reader txt) 📗

“Maybe you’re old enough to know,” said Hal, in a patronizing tone. “You’ve had the benefit of a fine education. We don’t know anything about how this young man was brought up.”

“And why should one mistake mean he loses his chance to play for the Phillies?” Vernon asked Beatrice. “More chicken, please, dear,” he said to Daisy, who’d just pulled out her chair to sit.

“I’ll get it,” said Evelyn, standing up and taking his dish.

“It’s all being blown out of proportion,” Vernon scoffed. “I mean, a few twits, or tweets, or whatever it is he did.” He picked up his water glass, his thumb leaving a smear of chicken grease on its side. “Poor kid’s not the only one to have done something stupid when he was young.” He grinned at Beatrice’s father. “I mean, if they’d had Tweeter when you were a kid, you probably would’ve never gotten into Dartmouth.”

“Dad,” Hal said sharply. But Vernon kept talking. “Remember that party in—oh, where was it, Newport? One of your friends’ families had a place. And you and your buddies went there for the weekend.” He used his knife to point at Danny. “You were there, weren’t you?”

Danny gave a nod, his pale face looking even paler. Jesse frowned and said something quietly. Danny picked up his water glass in a hand that seemed to shake.

Ignoring that byplay, Vernon turned back to the table and picked up the story. “It’s the middle of the night, and I get a call from the police, because they’d gotten a call from the neighbors, because…”

“Dad.”

“… my sons, both of them, got drunk, and decided to go skinny-dipping at two in the morning…”

“Dad.”

“… and then run naked through the neighbors’ backyard.”

Diana saw Daisy glaring at her father-in-law. She saw Jesse take his husband’s hand. She saw Hal sitting, enraged and frozen, as Vernon kept talking, oblivious to everyone’s discomfort, or maybe just enjoying the spotlight. “One of the boys had driven his car right onto the next-door neighbors’ backyard and through their screened porch, and passed out, naked as a jaybird, on the hood. The police couldn’t identify him because, obviously, he didn’t have his wallet. So they called the homeowners, who called all the boys’ parents. Including me.” He wiped his eyes and said to his son, “It’s a good thing your mother didn’t pick up the phone that night!”

Hal’s face was stony. Daisy looked desperately embarrassed. Danny gave a faint, protesting moan. “Excuse us,” said Jesse, standing up and taking Danny by the shoulder, practically hauling him out of the dining room.

“Did Dad get in trouble?” Beatrice asked. Diana could feel the tension in the room as she waited for Vernon to answer.

“Oh, I’m sure we punished him somehow,” Vernon said, with a conspiratorial wink at his son. “But there was no internet, is my point. The stupid things you did when you were young never made headlines. Which, in the case of your father, Beatrice, was a very good thing.”

“Boys will be boys.” Diana had meant to sound teasing and agreeable, but her voice sounded flat and cold. Hal had narrowed his eyes in a way that made her heart briefly stop beating. Vernon, meanwhile, thought she was agreeing with him.

“That’s it. That’s right. Boys will be boys. Boys have always been boys. And nothing—not political correctness, not all of this ‘Me Too’ stuff, not feminism—none of it will ever change that. It’s their nature.” Having concluded his speech, Vernon went back to attacking his mushroom-free chicken. Hal was still glaring at him, white around the lips, one hand fisted around his fork.

“And what if it was a girl who’d done what Dad did?” Beatrice asked.

“A girl wouldn’t,” Vernon said. “That’s my point.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Evelyn. “Some of the girls these days are pretty wild. Just as bad as the boys are, from what I hear.”

Vernon shook his head. “Everything’s upside down these days. And everyone’s so damn sensitive! Women acting like a man paying her a compliment is some kind of assault. People getting up in arms if you get their pronouns wrong. All these rules about what you can and can’t do in the office. You know,” he said to Beatrice, “that your grandmother Margie was my office gal.”

“No,” said Beatrice.

“It’s nonsense,” he said, as he began wiping his plate with a chunk of bread.

“I disagree,” said Daisy. She’d drawn herself up tall, and her face looked flushed above the same blue necklace she’d worn to New York City, the first time Diana had met her.

Vernon looked at her sharply. So did Hal. Daisy’s gaze was steady.

“I don’t think the new rules are bad,” said Daisy. “I mean, obviously, you can’t stop people from being attracted to their coworkers. But sometimes there’s a power differential, and I don’t think it’s wrong to make people aware of that.”

“You can’t have bosses chasing secretaries around the desk.” Evelyn looked like she was remembering something unpleasant.

“Hear, hear,” said Judy. Diana wondered how many desks the two of them had been chased around in their day, how much bad behavior they’d had to endure.

“I’ll bet boys today are afraid to even look at a girl,” Vernon said, shaking his head. His jowls wobbled, but his comb-over remained motionless.

“Poor boys,” Diana said. She said it very softly, but Hal, who’d been looking at his plate, jerked his head up. For a long, silent moment, their eyes met across the table. Diana forced herself to hold his gaze, even though she wanted desperately to get up from the table and run. I see you, she thought… and imagined that she could hear Hal saying, I see you, too. She was going to ask him something, to poke at him again, but Beatrice got there first.

“Dad, what do you think?” she asked.

Diana could see red spots, high on Hal’s cheeks. His voice was tight. “Do I think that some of the women are making mountains out of molehills? Yes.”

“Damn right,” Vernon muttered.

“Do I think there’s