Poppy said, “I’ll come along.”

As the two of them approached the water, Lisa said, “I try to remember what it was like, being fourteen. It was miserable, right? That’s why my daughter is such a sourpuss? Well, she’s never been much for swimming anyway. But it’s not that my daughter is a miserable person. Right?”

Poppy laughed. “It’s tough at that age,” she said. “You think whatever you feel is how it really is. Truth. And even worse, you think that whatever you’re feeling is the way you’re always going to feel. You can’t see a way around it.”

Lisa said, “Ryan seems like he got through it just fine. Was he like that when he was fourteen?”

“Sure.”

“When did he grow out of it?”

“Around sixteen,” Poppy said. “He sort of . . . well, I don’t know really how it happens, but things just got better. He got out of his own head, I suppose. Developed interests.”

“It’s not that Rae doesn’t have interests,” Lisa said. “She’s a reader, obviously, and the riding lessons . . . But it all seems so useless. Her interests seem no more than expensive distractions. Nothing actually makes her happy. I might as well let her sit in her room all day, scoot sandwiches under the door. Not even bother. Know what I mean?” She swatted at a deer fly buzzing at her thigh, and her palm thudded wet and slippery against her greasy leg.

Poppy said, “Is she into boys?”

“Nah. Not yet. Is Ryan into girls? I imagine he has a hard time fending them off.”

Poppy rocked her head back and forth, her lips, chapped and swollen from the sun, bunched to one side. “Hard to say. There was a girl he took on a few dates this past year, brought her over to meet us, but that didn’t seem to go anywhere. I haven’t heard boo about her in months. Fine by me, she seemed like a moron anyway.” Poppy created a shape in the sand with her toe, then erased it. “I told you about the Playboy magazines I found under his mattress a few months ago, right? I think maybe that’s enough to occupy him in that department. For now. I hope.”

Lisa laughed.

Poppy added, “I reckon he brought one along on this trip too, based on the way he reacted when I went into his room earlier, when he was unpacking and getting settled in. Guess I caught him by surprise while he was getting his things together. He bolted across the room, trying to close his suitcase before I got a look. I realized he probably had one of those magazines tucked in there, and decided not to say anything to embarrass him. Poor guy thinks I don’t already know all his dirty secrets.”

The two of them had reached the water, and Lisa let her feet sink fully into the sand, creating small pools around her ankles. The water was warm. Tiny white and silver and brown shells gathered and scattered all around their feet. A seagull dipped into the water a few yards out, then came to rest on it, settling its wings and bobbing gently over the waves. Lisa could see through the water to its black webbed feet, which swung lazily with the current.