Page 17 of A Secret Escape

Richard had moved in with Avery, who lived in a glass-fronted apartment in a city about an hour away. Every few weeks he picked up Zoe and she spent the weekend with them. Connie knew how hard Milly found those weekends.

“It’s okay.” Zoe shrugged. “It feels a bit weird. I worry about Mum. And I miss the lake and the mountains when I’m there. I don’t think I’m a city person. All that noise and traffic and so many people all squashed in one place. It’s all concrete. Even the trees look as if they’d rather be somewhere else. And Avery has a lot of rules that I keep forgetting.” She poured maple syrup onto her pancakes. “But I don’t want to hurt Dad’s feelings, and sometimes you have to do things you don’t really want to do, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Connie said. “You do.”

Zoe’s maturity humbled her. Connie sometimes thought her granddaughter was the most grown-up of all of them, but really shouldn’t Zoe just be hanging out with her friends and not worrying about the adults in her life?

She made a few more pancakes and put them in the middle of the table.

“How are rehearsals for the play going?” It would probably be better for her blood pressure to move the subject away from Richard and the saintly Avery. “Are you having fun?”

Zoe swallowed her bite of pancake. “Yeah, it’s fine.”

That wasn’t the reaction Connie had expected.

Zoe had wanted to be an actor from the moment she understood that such a thing existed. For years Connie had been a willing audience as Zoe had staged plays in the living room, clapping madly when her granddaughter had emerged from behind the curtains to take a bow.

They’d wondered if it might be a phase, but then Zoe had joined the drama club, and since then it was almost all she thought about.

Connie remembered how excited Zoe was when she’d auditioned and got the part inA Midsummer Night’s Dream. “How are you finding learning your lines?”

“Okay.” Zoe shrugged. “We’re doing the play in English at school, so I’m reading it all the time.”

“You’re not looking like someone who is having fun.” Peggy finished her coffee. “Tell us.”

“It’s nothing.” Zoe kept her eyes on her plate, which told Connie that whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t nothing.

“Are you struggling, honey? I thought Hermia was exactly the part you wanted.”

Zoe poked at her pancake with her fork. “It’s exactly the part Cally wanted too. We’ve kind of had a falling-out. I wish I hadn’t auditioned now.”

Cally and Zoe were as close as Milly and Nicole had been, so Connie understood how upsetting that would be.

“Didn’t Cally get a part?”

“She’s Hippolyta, but she doesn’t get to say very much. So now she hates me.” Zoe said it lightly, but there was a thickening in her voice that made Connie want to hug her.

“I’m sure she doesn’t hate you, darling.”

“Well, it feels that way.” Zoe finished her pancake. “Anyway, whatever. Don’t mention it to Mum, will you? She has enough to think about. I’ll figure it out.”

“Everything you say to us stays with us,” Peggy said briskly. “Including everything you tell us about your mother’s date.”

They heard the sound of the front door opening, and all froze.

“That’s her now.” Connie made a fresh cup of coffee and raised her voice. “We’re in the kitchen, Milly.”

Milly appeared in the doorway, and Connie felt a rush of love closely followed by concern.

She looked so tired. As if she hadn’t slept at all.

“You look tired,” said Peggy, who didn’t believe in holding back. “I hope that means you had fun last night. If you’d like to share, we’re here to listen.”

Milly gave her daughter a hug before sitting down at the table. “Nothing to tell. Thank you for having Zoe at such short notice.”

“You don’t have to thank me for having my own granddaughter to stay,” Connie said. “It’s a treat for me.”

“And for me,” Peggy added. “I learn a lot from her. Last night she gave me a lesson on emojis. I messaged my hiking group this morning and added two flowers and a cupcake and received some very confused responses. I should have joined a younger group. The conversation would be more interesting. More about sex and less about varicose veins and hip replacements.”

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