Blue (12 page)

Zeke was stoked to see his mother. There was no doubt about that. And who could blame him? Zeke's mom was the coolest mom in the history of moms. At least that was the opinion I came to within about one minute of talking to her.

Zeke had jumped out of the hammock the second he spotted his mother and they hugged each other for ages.

“Iris, this is my mom, Sephy July.”

Well, I had finally met someone with a weirder name than me.

“Sethy?”

“With a
ph
, surfer girl. Short for Seraphina, but who wants that label?”

She gazed up at Zeke once more, and said, “You done real good, baby,” and then she came over and hugged me, which I was not expecting. As she pulled away from me, very quietly she
murmured what sounded like, “Be gentle with him, Iris. He's not as tough as he looks.”

“What are you doing here, Mom?” Zeke said, missing what she had just said to me.

“Your pa invited me. Jacob needs to spread his wings, so we had one last day together and set each other free. You know how it goes.”

“Mom, I'm so sorry. He was a cool guy. Sure you can't fix it?”

“Pretty sure. A blind woman could have seen the love was fading out of him. Out of me too. Don't you worry about me, honey.”

Then she hooked her arms through mine on one side, and Zeke's on the other side, and connected like that we walked into the house.

Even in her late forties she was a head-turner. People were rushing up to her and asking how she'd been, and I caught at least five guys checking out her figure.

Zeke and his family spilled out into the garden, having a great time catching up with Sephy. Even Zeke's dad seemed pleased to see his ex-wife.

The stories she had to tell. She had traveled on her own to rough it in Oahu, living on pineapples stolen from the farms on the North Shore, on the fish she could catch with a spear each night and on coconuts that she climbed for herself. She was still climbing for coconuts when she was eight months pregnant with Zeke.

She was one of the original North Shore soul surfers, but the only girl up there, by the sounds of it. Shunned by the guys, she would go hunt for food and return to find they had buried her surfboard somewhere on the beach, or defaced it with
badly graffitied cocks. Once, she had the tires of her woody surf wagon slashed and her board smashed by an Australian dude who couldn't catch a single wave at Pipeline. But still she didn't let it get to her. She kept on trucking and surfed eight hours every single day. Then she married Zeke's biological father, had three kids, divorced him, and crossed paths with a certain clueless but charming dude from England called Dave. Garrett was to blame, apparently. He saw Dave checking out his mom and lobbed a clump of rotten seaweed at Dave's head. Zeke's mom went to apologize for her eldest son and the rest was history.

Zeke's uncle Chris arrived with Zeke's Nanna, who he'd just picked up from the nursing home. Nanna was four-feet-ten-inches of sparkly-eyed loveliness.

“Nanna,” Zeke said, going over to her wheelchair and holding her hand. “How are you feeling?”

“Better now. You're a sight for sore eyes, my darlin'. Is this the girl you're courting? Introduce us, dearie.”

“Iris, this is Nanna. Nanna, this is Iris.”

“Iris, are you a California girl?”

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Francis. No, I'm from here.”

“Do you know, I once visited Malibu. Such a vibrant, busy place.”

“Iris is from Newquay, Nanna.”

“Is she?” she said, disappointed. “Well, never mind. Where's my Garrett?”

“I'm here, Nanna.”

“And what about Wes?”

“He's keeping his head down,” Garrett said. “Fallen out with Zeke.”

“Fighting? Oh, boys will be boys. You should all go and surf it out. An evening like this, you shouldn't be indoors. Get as much of the stoke as you can, because it doesn't last forever. I only wish I could be out there with you, instead of in this damn chair.”

“Did you ever surf?” I said, surprised to hear an old lady use the word “stoke.”

“No, no, dear. We couldn't in our day. They wouldn't allow it.”

“Who?”

“Our fathers. Our brothers. Our sweethearts.”

“No? That sucks.”

“Oh, we wouldn't have dreamed of going out and competing with the men.”

Garrett butted in. “Nanna, tell Iris about the tandem.”

“We didn't surf, but we girls used to ride on the men's shoulders.”

“How the heck did you get up there?” I asked.

“They pulled us up, dear. The best girls would do handstands up there. But I used to stand up straight, with my arms out to either side. It was so much fun. We all did it then. Because of Marilyn, you know. She started it.”

Zeke looked at Garrett and shrugged. “Was she one of your friends, Nanna?”

Nanna laughed so hard that she had to wipe a tear away from her eye with a hanky.

“Monroe, of course! When she was Norma Jeane Baker she used to compete at tandem-surfing in California with a handsome surfer called Tommy Zahn. She was supposed to be very good in the water. Very athletic and robust. Never complained about the cold. And it did get cold, you know. Because you're
in the water and out of it so much, you get cold in a flash. But once we knew Marilyn did it, we had to try it too. If it was good enough for Marilyn, it was good enough for us.”

“What was it like?” I asked.

“Wonderful. Water all around. And you really had to concentrate, else you'd fall off. But of course, Newquay was so different then.”

“Quieter, I guess?” I said.

“Oh no, dear. It was wild. All of these young men who had dropped out of society and were flipping the bird to the squares. None of your designer labels—no, the boards were like tree trunks, and the wetsuits were so awful back then that they wore woolly sweaters underneath them. None of the money either, just lots of young men living their lives the best way they knew how.”

Nanna smiled at some far-off memory. Then she said, “It's been so wonderful to have you here this last week, Zeke, my beauty. I was so worried I wouldn't see you before this old heart did me in. And to see you in love too. Well, it's all I've ever wanted for you.”

I squirmed, and Zeke went very rigid in his seat.

“You know, I fell in love with a surfer once,” she went on. “He had the widest shoulders I have ever seen.” She sat there smiling, and then said, “What I'd give to go tandem-surfing again. Just one last time.”

Sephy looked at Zeke. “Will you take Nanna out surfing on your shoulders?”

Nanna squealed with delight and said, “Goodness me, that would be wonderful!”

Zeke looked totally shocked. “You're kidding me, right?”

“What about you, Garrett?”

“Um, that is kind of crazy. Are you high, Mom?”

“So,” Sephy said, “I'll take her. I work out.”

“Mom! No.” Zeke looked horrified at this idea.

Dave said, “Come on, Sephy, you can't be serious. Mom is seventy-five years old.”

“And?”

“If anyone's taking her, it's me.”

“With your sciatica?” Sephy said. “I don't think so. No, I'll do it.”

“What if you wipe out? Can Nanna even swim?” I said.

Nanna, who'd been wide-eyed and giggling, suddenly said, “Of course I can swim.”

Dave leaned over and asked me to see if I could round up Wes.

“No problem,” I replied. It had been great to sit there, listening to the mix of their lovely accents and laughter, but it felt like they deserved some time together, as a family. So I went for a wander through the rest of the house, dodging the milling crowds of partygoers, and tried to find Wes. It was silly for him and Zeke to fall out over a stupid game of Spin the Bottle. After a few laps of the downstairs rooms, I made my way upstairs.

It was partly nosiness. I thought I would just take a look at Zeke's bedroom. Not to snoop exactly, but just to see what it looked like. I didn't even know if he shared a room with his brothers. All the doors were open, though admittedly the last of them was only slightly ajar. The first room was incredibly tidy, painted lilac and turquoise and had all sorts of incense sticks, candles and tarot cards around. This had to be where Dave slept, and
it had probably been decorated by his ex, Daisy. The second room had a double bed, which judging by the porno mags and huge supply of condoms in a massive jar on the nightstand, had to belong to Garrett. At least I hoped so. When I looked in the third bedroom, I saw it was lit only by a single tea light. Two tall figures were standing by the window, the moonlight streaming through and making them a single silhouette. They were tangled together, hands in hair and jeans, kissing. I inhaled so loudly that I thought they would hear. They didn't. Wrapped up in their own world, they didn't know they were watched. One of them had fluffy pale hair loose around his face. The other one was . . . Wes.

Wes was kissing a GUY?

I closed the door and bumped into Zeke, who was racing up the stairs.

“You didn't tell me Wes was . . .” I said, and then I came to my senses and shut my mouth.

Zeke shot me this intense stare. “Wes was what?”

He stood there waiting for me to answer, not moving, hardly breathing; a rabbit in the headlights.

“Nothing.”

“What were you gonna say?”

“Forget it.”

“He came on to you again?”

“
No
.”

If Zeke had known Wes was into guys, he wouldn't have been so annoyed with him for kissing me during Spin the Bottle. But, in this family that seemed so close, how was it possible that Zeke didn't know his own brother was gay? Or maybe Wes was just experimenting or something? Maybe that's why he'd kissed me?
To figure something out? Or, in that awkward Spin-the-Bottle moment, had I been his cover?

“You're really pale, Iris. What happened? Just tell me already.”

What could I say? I couldn't tell the truth. If I told him what I saw, it would leave no room for Wes to deny it if he wanted to.

“Oh, is that Kelly?” I said, “I'm just gonna go get my lipgloss back from her.”

I intercepted her at the buffet table and grabbed her by the wrist. “Kelly, we've gotta get out of here.”

“No way! This is the best party ever! There's so much talent in here. Zeke's brother is a total hottie, by the way. He's been giving me flirty eyes all night. I'm so in there.”

“Which brother?”

“Garrett, obviously.”

“Why obviously? What's wrong with Wes?”

“Nothing. There's nothing
wrong
with him.”

“You don't sound very sure about that.”

“Well, you know, I obviously wouldn't want to be going out with a gay guy, would I?”

“
You know he's gay
?”

“Yeah, course.”

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“It's none of my business really.”

“
How
do you know?”

“His boyfriend's in our yoga class. Elijah. He was the blond guy I was chatting to, the night you met Zeke. I'm getting quite friendly with him now. Course, I didn't connect Elijah with Wes until I saw the two of them together tonight.”

“Zeke doesn't know.”

“Well, whatever you do, don't tell him. It's up to Wes to tell his family whenever he's ready. And, you know, he might never be ready to step out of that closet.”

“I literally almost just told Zeke. I am the worst.”

“Iris Fox, what are you like?”

“I know, I know. I made a right mess of covering. Zeke knows something's up. Come on—we have to leave before this gets any worse.”

I looked across the room and locked eyes with Zeke. His face was really tense. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Wes approaching, with a couple of giggly girls behind him. Garrett also picked that moment for a stop and chat with his brothers.

“Seriously, Kelly, let's go.”

I gave Zeke a hurried wave and made for the door, which was when Zeke's mother cornered me.

“Iris, I just want to tell you how happy I am that Zeke has you. He's always been such a quiet boy, such a raw soul.”

Yeah, right. I was starting to wonder how well any of this family actually knew each other.

She had some orange cocktail clutched in her hand, and as she was talking, she was spilling it on to the cream carpet. I didn't like to say anything so I just watched the falling droplets.

“Sex on the Beach,” she said suddenly.

“Sorry?”

“My drink. Haven't you tried it? It is fiiiiine. I
highly
recommend it.”

“I'm underage.”

“I wasn't talking about the alcohol, honey.”

There wasn't much I could say to that, because I was definitely not going to talk about anything sex-related with my sort-of-boyfriend's mother. With a drink or two inside her, Sephy had turned into Ben Stiller's mom from
Meet the Fockers
. Horrifying.

She dragged me back inside the house, where I saw Kelly had slipped by me and found Garrett again. They were dancing like lunatics on the huge kitchen table with about five other people. It was only a matter of time before one of them lost their balance and fell into the fridge.

Still, most of them were surfers, which meant they had to have decent balance. And Kelly had at least taken off her stilettos. Headbanging away to Stevie Nicks's “Edge of Seventeen,” which was her all-time favorite vintage song, I could see how happy she was. I watched as Garrett smiled at her. Maybe in some alternate universe Kelly would marry Garrett, I'd marry Zeke and we'd be sisters for real.

Crap
. I really was hammered if I was thinking corny stuff like that.

Zeke's mom staggered off to the bathroom and I took the chance to leave before Zeke saw me and started cross-examining me again. I ditched the chaos of the party and cleared my head by walking across the dark beach back to my house.