“Anyway, with everything that’s happened this year, I don’t think you have many other options. What you need is some hard work for a change. You’re going to be on the construction crew and learn how it all comes together. You know what Mark Twain said?”

“Yeah, Dad, I know: ‘Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.’ ”

“See?” Dom said. “I told you that you know more than you think.”

His dad was right: he wasn’t going to get a better offer. He thought about Will, heading off to Princeton in a few weeks. Without him. But there was no point in thinking about it now. Will had worked hard for it. And here Hunter was, once again, being offered an opportunity—even if it was just a job on a construction crew—that he probably didn’t deserve.

He’d brought this on himself, he knew. He’d been reckless before. He’d cheated on girlfriends and tests, and smashed up his car. But he’d never done anything like this. He thought of the cop, last year, seeing his family name on his driver’s license and letting him off on the speeding ticket. He’d felt invincible in that moment, and at the same time like nothing mattered. It was like punching in the dark, his fists meeting only air. Until one hit finally landed, and everything had exploded. He wasn’t invincible. And more important, he saw now, the people around him were as fragile as he was. He’d hurt Will, and Maddie. And June. He hadn’t meant to. He wasn’t even really thinking about them. And he’d even, he thought, managed to hurt his father by blowing his chance at Princeton.

He’d lost his friends, but here was his father, still trying to help him, still extending a hand. He was going to take it.

49

The weather was as gloomy as the news. For the past two weeks, Maja and Ted had shared the apartment in strained silence, barely meeting each other’s eyes, trapped inside by the rain. Ted stared at the reporters on TV and scanned the newspapers as the reverberations of Foxfield’s collapse were felt throughout the city. The headlines were apocalyptic: panic grips credit markets. foxfield collapse sends shockwaves around the world. job losses hint at vast remaking of economy.

Talking heads on TV reported on the bailouts of major mortgage companies, as they tossed around the term subprime mortgage as if it had always been part of daily conversation. The stock market rose and dipped wildly, seemingly on a whim. On the news, people stood outside their locked-up homes, their kids and furniture lined up on the curb and foreclosure notices on the door. The New York Post summed it up in one word: meltdown!