Massie (4 page)

THE BLOCKS’ SUMMER ESTATE

SOUTHAMPTON, NY

Monday, June 8
8:33 P.M.

The Green Party was in full swing, and Massie was ready— at last—to make her entrance, thanks to an emerald sequined Chanel flapper dress she’d found in Kendra’s long-forgotten vintage closet. Behind locked doors, she had snipped off the dangling beads and unstitched the cap sleeves. And before her mom could say
Project Runway,
she was passing it off as last year’s Marc Jacobs. It wasn’t ground-goddess chic—it was just chic.

In homage to Brownie, she’d swept her reflective dark hair into an elegant side pony and dusted her body in iridescent powder. If the Pretty Committee had been there, they would have rated her a ten. Maybe even an eleven, since she’d practically made the outfit herself.

Pausing at the top of the spiral staircase, Massie peered over the wide marble banister. Three floors below, the front foyer was rife with East Coast millionaires and their all-too-familiar party noises—violins screech-humming, champagne flutes clinking, air kisses smacking, and ladies envy-shrieking about each other’s outfits.

An excited tingle fluttered behind Massie’s abs. No more hanging with hayseeds! She was at an AA party now—and adult alphas understood her need to succeed.
They
would support her lawsuit against Galwaugh.

“Ready to break hearts?” Massie lifted Bean and scratched the pug underneath her matching emerald silk collar, sending her hind legs into happy spasms as they began their descent.

Massie’s dad, William, was standing at the foot of the staircase, looking up at her—his bald head buffed to a shine. He wore a tan linen tuxedo with a hemp bow tie. It would have seemed ridiculous if Bono hadn’t worn the same one to the Emmys.

“You look beautiful, sweetheart.” He took Massie’s hand, escorting her down the final two steps. She kissed her dad on the cheek. His face smelled like mentholated shaving cream.

“Enjoy the party,” he whispered in her Bailey Banks & Biddle diamond-studded ear, “because these are your last moments of freedom.”

Massie pulled away and grinned, pretending she hadn’t heard him. Her parents had never followed through on a punishment before. Why would they start now? She was practically a grown-up.

Bean let out a gentle yap. “She says you look very handsome,” Massie cooed, trying to charm her easily charmed father, just in case he was serious.

“Well, Bean . . .” William smiled, giving the puppy’s head a scratch. “You don’t look so bad yourself.” And then, just like Massie had figured, he winked and hugged her close. “It’s good to have you back.”

“Thanks, Daddy.”

Problem solved.

“And then I said, ‘Puffy or Puff Daddy, or P. Diddy, or
whatever
your name is, why don’t you just admit it?’” Massie could hear Trini Neufeld’s high-pitched voice and Gertie Shelly’s snort-laugh long before her mother’s two summer best friends came teetering into view. “You did nawt invent the White Party! Kendra has been hosting a color-themed party in South-ampton for . . .” She put her free hand on her hip and leaned against the banister. “How many years?” She waved Massie over urgently, her shockingly orange curly bob remained surprisingly still.

“Five.” Massie smiled politely, trying her hardest not to stare at Gertie, whose strapless green gown was inching its way down her Post-it-thin torso like a snake shedding its skin.

Trini took a huge gulp of fruit-filled sangria, then gripped Massie’s arm. “You’re just as gorgeous as ever. You simply
must
find my Ellie and say hello. She’s been going on and on about hanging out with Massie Block all night.” She plucked a grape out of her cocktail and deposited it on a passing tray of caramelized scallops. “You won’t believe she’s two years younger than you when you see the size of her chest. Poor old Roz Simmons almost popped an implant when she saw her earlier. I’m telling you, if jealousy was a penny, she’d Trump.”

Gertie burst into hysterics.

“Um, where did you say she was?” Massie asked, rubbing her arm. Trini’s coral talons were sharp, and Bean was starting to quiver in her presence.

“Last I saw, she was by the—”

“Great, thanks.” Massie hurried away, hugging her puppy close to her chest.

Weaving through the heavily perfumed crowd toward the open French doors, Massie set off to find some Hamptons GLUs in need of a summer alpha.

The night air was humid and still. It hugged Massie’s moisturized skin like a cashmere wrap. Giant leafy oaks twinkled with flickering star-shaped lights, and the thick pillars that flanked the patio were wrapped in fragrant green orchids. A dozen silver Priuses stood waiting along the circular driveway, their hired chauffeurs ready to drive tipsy guests home. Soothing sonatas played by a renowned Italian flautist drifted gently across the expansive lawn like a soft breeze.

“Massie!”
A freckle-faced redheaded girl leapt out from behind a pillar. It was the ever-annoying Ellie Neufeld, her big boobs accentuated by her limeade-colored elastic-top sundress.

Massie was so startled she dropped Bean, who landed with a squeak.

“You should see the look on your
face
!” Ellie cackled, hopping from foot to foot with glee. Massie bent over to comfort Bean, but the pug tore across the lawn to her doghouse—an exact replica of the estate, only mini.

“Ellie, are you a nocturnal mammal?” Massie asked, the corners of her mouth curling in anticipation.

“No.” Ellie giggled nervously.

“Then why are you badgering me?” Massie gripped her side-pony and twirled it around her finger.

“OMG, Massie!” Ellie bit her flaming-red chapped bottom lip. “Your hair is
totally
KHBC.”

“Katie Holmes Before Cruise?” Massie lifted an arched eyebrow.

“Yes! You’re so on it!” Ellie air-clapped.

Massie rolled her eyes and scanned the crowd for something— or some
one
—better. In the distance, atop a Balinese bed by the pool, Lindsey Kearns and Kimmi Redmond lay with their legs tangled. They were giggling at the passing waiters who, as per Kendra’s request, wore nothing more than formfitting Speedos and earth-colored body paint.

Massie turned on the heel of her silver Sigerson Morrison peep-toe slides and made her way over.

“Who does your hair, anyway?” Ellie bounced along behind her, following Massie along the candlelit stone path that led to the pool. “My guy moved to Vermont to marry his life partner, even though I told him I’d need a trim before starting sixth. So now my hair is, like, homeless.”

Ignoring her, Massie marched onward, swatting Ellie’s words away like a malaria-carrying mosquito.

In the flickering candlelight, the green- and brown-dressed partygoers looked like swirling trees. Or was that the day’s emotions catching up with her? Massie was suddenly so overcome with exhaustion she contemplated sneaking up to bed and starting fresh tomorrow. But it was too late for that now. Lindsey and Kimmi were waving her over.

“Hey.” Massie stood over them, unsure whether she should commit to sitting. It was still too early to tell.

Lindsey immediately untangled herself and sat up. “Super-sweet party.” The blonde’s center-parted frizzy dry hair was begging for rain, and her olive Roxy halter dress and J.Crew flip-flops were daytime casual. She was in desperate need of a beauty mentor.

“Yeah, and those tiny cheesecakes are tooo cuh-yoot.” Kimmi licked her wax-coated, berry-colored lips. They were the only part of her face that wasn’t dotted with cheap drug-store glitter. She looked like she’d been hit in the face with a snow globe. “What are you doing back from horsey camp?”

Massie accepted a virgin piña colada from a silver waiter and took a long sip. “You mean Galwaugh
riding
camp?”

Kimmi nodded enthusiastically.

“I left.”

“Why?”
Lindsey widened her waterlogged eyes. “I heard that place was
the
best.”

“It used to be.” Massie straw-stirred her icy drink. “But it wasn’t challenging me anymore,” she lied. What business was it of theirs why she was back? They should be lip-kissing her silver-sandaled feet that she was even talking to them. “So, what are you guys up to this summer?” she asked, hovering above them.

“Surf clinic.” Lindsey lifted three fingers. “Third summer in the ocean.”

Hair doesn’t lie.

“Can you
believe
? I think waves are, like, the scariest things ev-er.” Kimmi tugged her dark girly braids, her wide brown eyes fixed on Massie, waiting for her to agree.

But Massie couldn’t. Nothing was more frightening than Kimmi’s second-grade style.

“I’m babysitting,” Ellie proudly volunteered. She collapsed onto the bed as if raiding someone’s fridge and watching cable was backbreaking work. “I already have sixty-eight dollars saved.”

“Two more and you can afford a decent pedicure,” Massie hissed at Ellie’s unpolished toenails.

Lindsey and Kimmi cracked up. Finally! After the day she’d had, Massie was starting to feel like the only person on the planet with a functioning sense of humor.

“Move!” Massie shooed Ellie to the edge of the bed and sat.

“Are
you
working this summer?” Kimmi rolled onto her stomach and kicked her own butt with the heels of her green Marc Jacobs jellies.

“Puh-lease! I’m here to relax.” Massie slammed her froth-streaked glass down on the teak pool deck. “Summer jobs are for LBRs who miss doing homework.”

“
I
have a summer job.” Kimmi pushed herself up.

“You mean a
jobby,
right?” Massie assumed.

“What’s a jobby?” Lindsey asked with an amused grin.

“A job-hobby. Like making jewelry in your bedroom and selling it to a local boutique.” Massie screwed off the top of her Blueberry Pie–flavored Glossip Girl and smeared it across her suddenly very dry lips. “Something you do for fun,
nawt
money.”

“Um, no.” Kimmi grabbed her recycled newspaper clutch and stood. “I work in the SAT kiosk at the beach club . . . for

money.
”

Massie stared at her blankly.

“You know, ‘Sunscreen and Towels’?”

“Oh, sorry.” Massie smirked.

“It’s okay.” She softened. “Only in-the-know staffers call it that.”

“No.” Massie looked at Lindsey with a devious smile. “Sorry you
work
there.”

Lindsey gasp-covered her mouth in shock.

“Glad you
don’t
!” Kimmi shouted, then stormed off in a huff.

Massie sighed. “That’s why I don’t work. It stresses everyone out. And life was meant to be enjoyed.” She lifted her palm, expecting an I-totally-agree high five from her new beta. But Lindsey left her hanging and flip-flopped away to comfort-chase Kimmi.

And that left Massie alone with Ellie, her pre-teen B-cups, and the desperate need for this miserable day to end.

THE BLOCKS’ SOUTHAMPTON ESTATE

MASSIE’S BEDROOM

Tuesday, June 9
1:17 P.M.

Massie checked her butt in the mahogany-framed mirror by her bedroom door. “What do you think, Bean?” She rested a hand on one hip. “I found this old Diane von Furstenberg bikini in Mom’s vintage closet yesterday. Thank Gawd she did the Atkins diet a few years ago. It’s totally my size!”

Bean poked her pudgy head out of the just-for-show mosquito netting draped over Massie’s king-size canopy bed.

“The burnt orange is unflattering
now,
but after five days of tanning I’ll be ready to show it off at the beach club.” She turned away from her pale, albeit toned, riding camp legs with renewed hope.

After sleeping for thirteen hours on her luxurious Duxiana mattress, Massie was starting to feel more like herself again. Her alpha battery had been recharged and her summer plan set.

Week one: Clear up credit card issues. Tan and rest poolside.

Week two: Hit the beach club. Recruit summer GLUs in need of an alpha and a good time.

Week three: Shop and spa with S-GLUs.

Week four: Yacht day trips with S-GLUs. DVD rentals and sleepovers at night.

Week five through Labor Day: Combine activities from weeks three and four.

Labor Day: Say goodbye to S-GLUs and hello to the Pretty Committee (yay x 10) September 8—Look ah-mazing for eighth grade.

It was a lot less action-packed than her schedule at riding camp. But maybe her termination from Galwaugh was a sign from Gawd, His way of telling her to take a load off and pamper herself for a change.

Someone rapped on her door. Massie reached for last year’s silver-and-white sarong and wrapped it around her mother’s off-limits bikini.

“You finally awake?” Kendra entered dressed in her post-party recovery outfit: lavender-scented lilac Frette robe, matching slippers filled with self-heating rejuvenation pearls, and a copper wire anti-hangover bracelet. Her face was shellacked with a potent cocktail of moisturizers reserved for those rare makeup-free days. She looked like a drawing of a woman in a coloring book, waiting to be filled in and brought to life.

“I have one question for you, Massie.” Kendra folded her arms, one slippered foot tapping the beige sisal rug.

“Me first!” Massie padded over to her green apple–colored velvet chaise. Before sitting, she cranked the window open, inviting the salty ocean breeze to work its magic on her hair. “Who canceled my credit cards?”

“I did.” William entered, an unlit cigar dangling from his lips. He stuffed his thick hands in the pockets of his white boating shorts and rocked back on the heels of his Top- Siders.

“Why?” Massie stood immediately. “Are we
poor
?” she whispered.

“
You
are.” William smugly flicked the brim of his navy sailor cap. “I’m not.” The cap was the exact same color as his Lacoste polo and a little too matchy-matchy, but out of spite, Massie chose not to tell him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She stomped over to the bed and flopped onto its puffy silk eiderdown, her lower lip drooping in a well-rehearsed pout.

Her parents shot each other meaningful looks. William removed the cigar. “You just got kicked out of the most prestigious riding camp in the state of New York and yet you fail to grasp the gravity of the situation.”

Massie buried her face in a Jo Malone Nectarine Blossom – scented pillow and rolled her eyes. She understood the
gravity
of the situation perfectly—she was going
down
.

“What drove you to glue Maxwell Galwaugh’s grand daughter to a
saddle
?” William’s light brown eyes were totally twinkle-free. “What was so darn important about winning
that
race?”

Massie widened her amber eyes to heart-melting proportions. “The winning part.”

Kendra sighed. “There’s nothing wrong with coming in second every once in a while.”

“But Daddy always says, ‘Be the best Block you can be,’” Massie tried. “That’s all I was doing.”

“You were doing it at someone else’s expense.” William sat on the edge of the bed and ducked under the mosquito netting. “And
that’s
unacceptable.”

“Sorry.” Massie inched beside her father and put her arms around him. “Do you forgive me?”

William instantly returned the hug.

Done, done, and done.

“I won’t do it again,” Massie told Kendra, who was standing above them, arms folded across her sunburned chest.

“I hope not,” she huffed.

“Now will you
please
turn my credit cards back on?”

“Of course, dear,” Kendra purred. “As soon as you pay us back for your summer at Galwaugh.”

“What?”
Massie snapped. She searched her father’s eyes for that just-kidding sparkle, but found all-business brown instead. “So we
are
poor!”

Her stomach filled with panic acid. Her fingertips froze. And her heart pounded a distress signal.
Poor
and
alpha
were the social equivalents of a Big Mac and a Diet Coke. Both begged the question, “Who are you kidding?”

“We are absolutely
not
poor,” William insisted. “In fact, I just had a record-breaking year.” He puffed out his chest with pride.

“You are going to pay us back because we want to teach you a lesson,” Kendra told her daughter.

Massie stomped over to her window and looked out at the tree-lined driveway, wishing she were back at camp, free of debt, and galloping with Brownie on the lush woodsy trails. “What lesson is
that
?”

“Winning at all costs is a very bad investment.” William stood. He kissed his daughter on the back of her glossy brunette head and hurried out in case she started crying.

Kendra appeared beside Massie. “Trini Neufeld was able to get you a job at the Southampton Beach Club.” Her voice softened. “Ellie goes to their day camp, and they’re looking for some summer help.”

Massie turned to face her mother. “You
seriously
want me to get a
job
?”

“It sounds like a lot of fun,” Kendra tried. “Trini says Ellie just loves the program.”

A salty breeze blew by, as if trying to remind Massie exactly what she was fighting for.

“Pass!” She glared into Kendra’s unwavering hazel eyes. “Mom, if I have to work this summer, I’ll be too exhausted to reach my potential at school next year, and then I’ll tank in the PSATs and I won’t get into a good college! Really, is it worth risking everything just so Ellie can have a friend?”

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice, Massie.” Kendra headed for the door. “We’re not
asking
you to get a job. We’re
telling
you to.”

“What if I refuse?”

“
Hasta la
Visa, baby!”

Massie’s stomach lurched.

The image of Kimmi sweating in the SAT hut while her friends read magazines by the pool popped into Massie’s mind. It was more depressing than fur coats.

If Massie was going to do this, she needed something glamorous. Enviable. Alpha-worthy. Something that
earned

like a job but
looked
like a hobby.

She needed a
jobby
.

“Can I at least find my
own
summer career?” Massie insisted.

Kendra pressed one shaky finger to her temple. Massie could almost see the veins bulging. “You have one week. Otherwise, I’m calling the club and telling them you accept.” She shuffled toward the open door.

“Can I think about it by the pool?” Massie called.

“Whatever works.” Kendra shut the door behind her, the word
works
echoing in Massie’s brain like a bad J.Lo remix.