“I know. I forgive you. And I know you won’t say mean things to me again. Right?” He nodded fervently, and I hugged him tight against me. “Let’s go warm up some water on the stove for a bath for you.”
Tara sat up groggily as I tried to sneak by her to check onCassie while the water heated. “Hey,” she sighed, rubbing her eyes. “I conked right out. How was the meet?”
“Hang on,” I told her, then padded up the stairs and peeked into Cassie’s room. She was asleep with her back to the door, a tray with the remnants of lunch on the bureau. I silently picked it up, then crept out of the room.
I came back downstairs to Tara. “She ate?” I asked, nodding my head at the tray. I put it in the kitchen and checked the pots of water I had going on the stove. Lukewarm, at best. It was going to need to be boiling to heat up the icy stream coming from the pipes.
“She ate a little. So, how did Charlie do?”
“He swam great.” Behaviorally, a different story. “Darby did too. Did you get my pictures?”
She nodded. “Diego and Darby just texted me that her relay DQ’d on Macdara’s breaststroke leg.”
“Oh, shoot! I guess you were right about the extra butterfly kick.”
Tara nodded again. “Yep, it was her pulldown. Darby said Macdara threw a fit at the side of the pool and Coach Sean didn’t do anything. That relay was probably the first time in her life one of her actions had any consequences and she couldn’t take it.”
Coach Sean had always seemed to be a disciplinarian to me, at least when I had seen him at practice. I remembered him lighting into Ellis about the shove. I wondered why he hadn’t intervened with Macdara, but maybe it hadn’t been so bad. Tara’s stories tended toward the dramatic. “That’s too bad about the DQ, but there will be a lot more races.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, Darby’s over it already. She and Macdara actually get along, when Macdara isn’t pulling some ‘check out my latest expensive gadget’ crap. The kid has everything.”
“What else did Diego say about the meet?” I asked unconcernedly. Any discussion about whores?
“Nothing much. The motel is ok, kids are getting along ok. Coach Sean is a limp little dick for keeping Macdara in the relay every meet.”
I made a face. “Tara!”
“I mean it.Flaccid.” She drew out the word.
“Yuck!” I squealed, then remembered that Cassie was sleeping. “That word is now banned from my house,” I hissed.
“Diego said that Annie Whitaker cried when Macdara flipped out. What a wench. Crying at a swim meet,” Tara scoffed. “Control your kid, bitch!”
I remembered what Luke had said about Annie having her own problems. “Why do you hate her?”
“Don’t you remember her from when we were kids? Rolling through town in the summer in some sweet convertible, acting like the people here weren’t worth shit.” I had no recollection of Annie as a teenager, but clearly Tara did. “What’s not to hate? Her rock-hard ass, her wardrobe, her buckets of money? Wait until you see her house. It’s like a fucking magazine shoot.”
Oh crud, the team dinner at Annie’s house. Well, maybe I would feel able to face the other parents at some point. Maybe.
“Maybe she’s just totally clueless,” I told Tara. “She seems harmless. What’s her husband like? What’s his name, Miles?”
“Milos. Milos Rendic.” Tara considered. “He’s good looking. Quiet. I don’t think I’ve never heard him speak. At all the team stuff he just stands in the corner with a drink in his hand while she runs the show. She’s a real social butterfly, and by that I mean she has the brain of an insect.”
“Tara, she’s not that bad!”
“Whatever. And speaking of Whitakers, how was the ride down?”
I got up from my chair. “I better check the water. Charlie really needs a bath.”
“Avoidance, much? WTF, Em?”
I hurried into the kitchen. “I’m not avoiding anything! There’s just nothing to tell. We took his car, he drove the whole way. He brought coffee.” A dreamy smile started to form on my face and I quickly suppressed it. “He’s nice.”
“‘He’s nice,’” Tara mimicked. “Details, bitch! What was he wearing, what did he say, how big is his—”
“Tara! Please!” I was blushing just thinking about it. “I don’t even remember what he was wearing.”
“Give me details. I’ve been sitting on my ass on your couch all day, and your cable is out.”
