Page 65 of The Game Is Afoot

His phone lights up on his desk in between us, a notification of a text. It’s quick, but I catch the slight tensing of his jaw as he flips the phone over. And then he’s talking again before I can decide if it makes me look like a paranoid, jealous girlfriend to ask about it.

“Yeah, but if Cole knew, and Bethany didthat…Mavis, that’s even more of a reason to be careful here. What will she do to you? Pass it on to the detectives and let them take the risk.”

I know what he wants me to say. “I will.”

He raises his eyebrows. Becausehe knowsI know it’s what he wants me to say.

“Eventually.”

His jaw drops in exasperation.

“Soon!” I say in between giggles. “I promise, soon!”

He stands and comes over to my side of the desk, pulling me up into a hug. “I’m fully aware you’re humoring me, and I know asking you to give this up entirely is a fool’s errand. So I guess I’ll just ask you to be safe about it. Don’t do anything with this woman alone, and if it starts to get dangerous—actually, beforeyouthink it starts to get dangerous, let the police handle it.” He clears his throat, and the spark of silliness in his eyes is replaced by something more somber. “I was so scared…when we didn’t know where you were that night. I don’t know what I’d do…if anything happened to you.”

He strokes my cheek with his thumb, holding me tight like I’m a treasure. And it feels so good my brain is momentarily erased of all thoughts except forWow, I get this. I deserve this.And I tell myselfthat’sthe reason I don’t ask who that text just now was from. Or tell him about out my upcoming (alone and maybe dangerous) meeting with Bethany.

We walk to the auditorium together, just in time to catch Anabella warbling, “N-Y-C! Just got here this morning!” andhitting notes that she surely invented herself. Pearl follows close behind her with a truly epic side-eye.

“Derek is very invested in that scandal, too,” Jack whispers behind his hand. “It’s become our top dinner table topic all week, even more than his predictions forCelebrity Jeopardy!”

“Tell him I tried. You know, maybe I can send an anonymous email to all the parents so they know what’s going on. Make sure Trisha gets hers that way.” I laugh for plausible deniability, but it’s not the worst idea…

I see the exact moment Jack realizes what I’m realizing, amusement tooh no, and that makes me laugh even more.

“Hello, Jack,” Pearl says when she reaches us. There’s mischievous delight on her face, and then exaggerated embarrassment as she pretends to remember. “Oh, I’mso sorry. Forgive me, Mr.Cohen!”

She may not be the lead, but baby girl is definitely getting the most out of these acting lessons.

“Hello Ms. Harding,” Jack says, in an exaggerated formal tone as he bows. “Permission to escort you to your car?”

“Yeah, sure. Mom, did you bring any snacks?”

We have a surprise waiting for me at my Prius, though. IknewI should have done another circle until I found a spot within one hundred feet of the front gate.

“Hey! Hey, Mavis! We need to talk.”

This is about to be real bad if I don’t even get a yoo-hoo. I look to Jack and there’s wariness on his face…and maybe even a little disapproval? But I don’t have time to analyze that now. I nod my head to the side in question and he nods back.

“Hey, Pearl, Anabella. Do you want to play that imaginary bubble game from class?”

Anabella nods excitedly, oblivious (either because she just is or because that’s a defense mechanism you pick up when yourmother is the devil). Pearl, though, knows something’s up and looks over her shoulder suspiciously as Jack walks them farther down the sidewalk.

“What do you want, Trisha?”

“Oh, don’t be coy, now!” she shouts, throwing her hands up. Hopefully the imaginary bubble game is louder. “You weren’t coy when you went behind my back to Mr. Smith, trying to get Anabella’s role taken away.”

“Oh my god, I didnottry and get her role taken away. If that happened, it’s your—”

“You’re damn right! Because that didn’t happen. I explained to Mr. Smith that this was all just a misunderstanding, and Mr. Forest confirmed.” She smiles smugly. “But itcouldhave. You really should think about the consequences of your actions and how your little Sherlock hobby affects other people.”

I let out a sound that’s half shocked laughter, half shriek of fury, and she takes that as a sign to go on. “Because I see what this really is. Youandthat Florence. You like to play the victim so you can get attention and get your kids ahead instead of doing the hard work to make it happen, like me.Oh, she threatened someone at my kid’s party! Oh, she hurt my kid’s precious mental health!She screws her face up into an exaggerated frown, making her voice squeaky and high, and I can’t even take a beat to feel offended because I’m trying to catch up with her. Is that supposed to be me…and Florence? How did Florence get into this?

“Moms don’t want to work anymore. They just want to do everything the easy way. And then they’ll go cry on NPR when their little snowflakes don’t get into Stanford—when they didn’t do whatneededto be done!”

“Trisha,what?” Did she just quote…Kim Kardashian? And again—how didFlorenceget into this?

But I don’t get a chance to clarify anything, because she’salready marching back over to her minivan, an eerie calm settling over her features. “I hope you’ve learned your lesson, Mavis. And I’m happy to move on if so. Let’s set up a playdate for the girls soon.” She beams over at Anabella, who is clapping her hands in front of her face and giggling with Pearl and Jack. “Come on, sweet girl! We need to meet your tennis coach in ten minutes! Thank you for your help, Mr. Cohen!”

---