“You won’t be able to make a living and have a stable life, Leo.” Leo cast his eyes out to sea. “He’s hoping he can change my mind still. Get me back to Michigan. He’ll probably never do the Leo Winn thing again. Thank the Lord.”

Joey laughed even though this was clearly not funny. “Leo what?”

“You sound like a chain-smoking football coach.”

“I said Leo what?” She had to keep going with the shtick or she was going to lose it. “I can’t hear you!”

“Winn,” he said drily. “Leo Winn. Only now I’m a big fucking Loser to my father. It’s okay. I don’t care. I’m not him. I don’t want to be him.”

“And Maisy? What did your mom say?”

“Maisy.” Leo sighed. “Maisy said she’d forgotten something in her garden.”

“Oh.” The sun was fiery on Joey’s shoulders, and yet she shivered. “But, like, Leo, I don’t get it.” She shaped sand into a mound and then punched it spontaneously with her fist. “If you do this, you’re gonna be living in the middle of oceans. And if we’re going to stay together…” The if part paralyzed her. She didn’t know how to continue.

“We’ll figure it out, Jonesey. I don’t know how, but we will. I want to be with you. You’re the best part of my life. This doesn’t change that.”

Joey nodded. She didn’t trust herself to speak.

Leo touched her hat. “I like that you’re wearing the Jonesey hat.”

“It hasn’t been the same since the strawberry gelato incident.” She tried to crack a smile but couldn’t force one out.

She was in a mood, clearly. She remembered a day last summer. Lily had stepped on one of her paintings with the paint still wet. That had been beyond infuriating. And then Joey had gone to lunch with her mother and a strong wind had sent Bea’s skirt up to her chest, and it had been clear to Joey, and the whole of Liston, that Bea wore no underwear underneath. It had been really embarrassing, and the worst part was that Bea hadn’t even apologized! She’d maintained it was her right to exist sans lingerie at any time or place of her choosing. That actually she should be praised for unbinding the shackles of modern women. She’d had the audacity to suggest that Joey might find herself a little less uptight if she were to abandon her underwear too.

Leo had been on the terrace when Joey got back. It had all been a swirl, a raging swirl, and Leo had said, “Sit down, Jones.” She’d sat. “Tell me,” he’d said.

“I’m just…ugh at my mom and Lily!”

“Okay, tell me more.”

“If you really want to know, I feel all…like…annoyed…and down. Really angry. Distraught.” She’d felt herself getting even more riled up. There had been an overall feeling surging, a very particular one, that she hadn’t been able to wrap inside words. “I feel all zigzaggy.”