Page 170 of Movers and Shakers

“Considering the bangs? Lila. Definitely her.”

Tom slowly covered his mouth, the truth dawning on him.

“You can’t tell anyone,” I said quickly. “Seriously. No one.”

“Haven’t we proven you can trust us?” Ruth asked. “We won’t tell a soul. And I’m sure Tom will agree once he stops internally calculating everything over there.”

“She always wears a wigas Lila?”he asked.

“Yes, she does.”

“Can someonedothat? Like onstage?”

“Uncomfortably, yes. A lot of lace wigs require glue.”

Tom’s face twisted. “That sounds like torture.”

“It probably is,” Ruth said, “but her having it means she can go out in public and no one follows her. That’s why she does it, right?”

“Mostly. And some of her family can’t deal with all the attention that comes with it. This is why no one else was supposed to know.”

“And no one will,” Ruth said. “We’ve not let anything slip, ever. I thought we were getting closer, notlyingto each other, Barry.”

And now I saw why she was mad. We had been getting along and feeling more like a family than ever before.

And this felt like something the old us would do.

“It had nothing to do with the three of us. I didn’t even know until a few months ago, either.”

“What?” Ruth asked. “She didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

“Even when you met her at the bar?”

I shook my head.

“Is that why you were mad at her?” Tom asked.

“When was Barry mad at her?” Ruth’s eyes went wide.

“The day I told you that Barry and I went to the gym and got breakfast with Max. I told you he was out of it.”

“Yeah, that’s when I found out.”

Ruth blinked. “But you knew her for months. You wrote analbumwith her.”

“And I knew Rose separately. It was . . . bad. And she admitted it was. Publicly.”

“The apology song,” Tom said. “That was about . . . She mentioned someone getting to know both sides of her. How did no one catch onto the meaning of that?”

“Thankfully, it’s not a person’s first thought to think of a secret double life. But I’m telling you, there’s a reason she hid it like she did. Until me and her bodyguard,no oneknew.”

“No one?” Ruth repeated.

I nodded.

“Okay, that makes sense, then.”

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