Page 142 of Movers and Shakers

I wondered when he was going to corner me to ask all of his questions, but Selena walked into the room, her face looking exactly like Max’s, and that took his attention.

“How do I not be weird?” she asked.

“I just asked that! Well, kind of,” Max said. “And it’s no use. We’re both about to besoweird.”

Tom tried to placate the both of them, but as time went on, Selena and Max only seemed to grow more nervous, as if they could possibly mess this up.

They didn’t know it yet, but I doubted this would be their only chance to see her. They’d already charmed Lila when she was someone else.

Ruth walked in, hair down, chatting animatedly with Lynn. “And she has so many cool lyrics,” she said. “I love everything she’s written.”

“I’ll have to ask what her favorite song is,” Lynn said. “And I’ll start there.”

“Thank you for coming, even if you don’t know her all that well.”

“You like her, though; that’s what matters to me.”

I couldn’t resist smiling at the two of them. It was nice seeing Ruth so comfortable with Lynn. It was the connection she never had with Mom.

We saw Juno’s blacked-out car pull up and a hush fell over all of us. Evenmyheart pounded, but for different reasons.

Lila got out of the car, all dark hair and sunglasses. From far away, hardly anyone would recognize her.

When she walked in the door, the sunglasses came off and she smiled at everyone.

“Hi,” she said warmly. “It’s good to meet you.”

Her makeup was heavier than usual, casting a stark difference between her and Rose. Her voice was also clear and loud, addinganother thing that set her apart from her alter ego. I let out a breath of relief as Ruth smiled with no sign of suspicion.

Rose had been right. Shehadbeen doing this long enough to know exactly what to do.

“Hi!” Max was the first to speak. “I literally can’t believe this is real.”

Tom laughed. “Don’t forget to introduce yourself.”

“Right! I’m Max, and this is my mom.” He dragged Selena by her arm.

“Hello,” she said weakly.

“Hi. I don’t bite. I promise.”

Selena let out a mix of a laugh and a gasp.

“It’s nice tomeetyou for the first time,” Ruth said with a wink.

For a second, I cursed. Was this Ruth’s way of hinting that she knew?

“Oh yeah,” Lila said, not missing a beat and winking back. “We’ve definitely never met before.”

How was she not freaking out? How did she not see what Ruth was hinting at?

But then Ruth caught onto my expression and she mouthedthe bar.

Oh. They were talking about the day Ruth and Lila had met. It had nothing to do with Rose at all. I nodded, trying to remember that Lila knew exactly what she was doing.

“Hi,” Lynn said. “I’m Lynn.”

“She’s my boyfriend’s mom that I steal sometimes.”

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