One Last Thing Before I Go

sorry.”
    “Come for Friday-night dinner. Let her cook for you, let her see you. It will be good for both of you.”
    “OK.”
    His father looks at him, kind of measures him with his eyes. There are things Ruben wants to tell him, questions he wants to ask, but he can see that Silver’s not up for it right now. Instead, Ruben pulls off his loafers, and then his black socks, pulls up his suit pants, and puts his legs in next to Silver’s.
    “It’s getting so I can’t take you anywhere,” he says.

CHAPTER 29
    B ack at the Versailles, Casey joins the men at the pool, which Jack is not happy about. He shakes his head at Silver, like he’s just committed the mother of all faux pas.
    “What’s wrong?” Casey says. “Am I cramping your style?”
    “A little bit,” he says, then looks at Silver. “Really, Silver. Here?”
    “Where he goes, I go,” Casey says.
    “That sounds like a foolproof plan,” Jack grumbles.
    “Does my being here make it hard for you to check out the asses of other girls my age? Is that it? Or is it that if I was sitting over there”—she indicates the college girls tanning across the pool—“with those skanks, you know you’d be staring at my ass too, and that’s upsetting to you because I’m your friend’s daughter?”
    “Jesus Christ,” Jack mutters.
    Oliver laughs.
    “Casey,” Silver says.
    “Sorry, sorry,” she says, grinning. “Pretend I’m not here.”
    “That would be easier if you would stop talking,” Jack says.
    “What is it with men and younger women?” Casey says.
    “There she goes again,” Jack says.
    “No, I’m serious,” Casey says. “I’m genuinely interested.”
    Jack cranes his neck to look at her, then looks across the pool at the college girls lined up in their chairs like they just came off the assembly line. He looks at Silver, asking for permission, and Silver shrugs.
    “I think it’s anthropological,” Jack says.
    “What does that even mean?”
    “I mean, we’re programmed, in our cells. It’s the animal kingdom. The male is drawn to the young, fertile female. It’s an instinct. To propagate the species.”
    Casey shakes her head, smiling incredulously. “So you’re just an innocent bystander to biology, is that it? Forces beyond your control.”
    “You didn’t ask me that. You asked me why I’m attracted to younger women,” Jack says, turning onto his side to face her. “Control is where I failed. Where you failed too, by the way. We don’t get to decide who we’re attracted to. Believe me, I wish we did. I’d still be married. And you wouldn’t be pregnant.” He indicates Oliver and Silver. “None of us would be in this mess.” His eyes grow wide, earnest in a way Silver has never seen. “I love my wife. I’d give anything to be with her right now. I mean, look at us. We’re intelligent people, but sex has nothing to do with intelligence. It’s impulse and instinct and animal attraction and it’s built into our cells. I know that’s not what they teach you in school right before they give out the condoms, but that’s what it is. And I’m not saying I like it. It’s a goddamn tragedy, is what it is.”
    His voice goes up at the end, almost cracking. He looks around at them, suddenly self-conscious. It’s the first time Silver has ever heard him refer to his wife like that, the first time he’s caught a glimpse of the pain behind Jack’s bluster.
    Casey seems to sense it too. “That was actually kind of beautiful,” she says.
    “And strangely articulate,” Oliver adds.
    “I have my moments,” Jack says, already regretting it.
    Casey looks over to Oliver. “So, you agree with him?”
    Oliver considers it for a moment. “I appreciate his point of view, without necessarily endorsing the behavior.”
    “Oh, bullshit,” Jack says, annoyed. “If you could still get it up, you’d be right in there with me.”
    “I have daughters that age.”
    “Daughters who haven’t talked to you in years.”
    “Nevertheless.”
    Jack rolls his eyes.
    Casey turns to her father. “What about you, Silver?
    “What about me?”
    “Come on. I saw you with that girl the other night.”
    He doesn’t want to answer her, but as with everything else these days, he seems powerless to stop himself. “Their skin is tight,” he says. “Their asses are round and high, their bellies are smooth and flat, their breasts are full and firm and hang up high where God intended. They smell good, they taste good, and