“Oh, God. What are the other mothers going to think when they find out our daughters’ father was with someone who committed suicide right here in the neighborhood?”
Unable to stop myself from answering that inane question, I turn around and glare at her. “What the hell does that matter? Why would they think anything? I had nothing to do with his death.”
“Well, I don’t want the mothers to think badly of the girls. That’s all I was saying. I don’t think our daughters should suffer because of something that happened to you.”
“Whatever. I’m sure they’ll be gossiping about someone else soon enough.”
I don’t wait for her response before walking into the bathroom and shutting the door behind me. Maybe I’ll take another shower. I barely did anything since my first one this morning, but after what happened on the trail, I feel like I need to restart this day.
For the next ten minutes, I scrub my body in a desperate attempt to cleanse myself of every last trace of what happened today. Leave it to Bryan to completely screw up a nice hike. Asshole.
Nearly ready to get out of the shower and restart my day, a terrible thought pushes out every other one in my brain. He killed himself with my gun. I have no way of explaining that.
Once those cops figure that out, they’re going to focus entirely on me.
Thinking back on Ramon and Raintree, I know what’s going to happen. Those two couldn’t solve a crime if the answer was tattooed on their brains. The second they find out it’s my gun Bryan shot himself with, they’re going to be looking at me for this, even though it was an accident.
Son of a bitch. This is what I get for wanting to be better friends with people at work.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jamie
My mind racesas I stand in the middle of the bedroom I share with my husband trying to digest the terrible news he just told me. Someone killed themselves on the nature path. It’s so hard to believe. This is why I always tell Connor to keep his guns locked up tightly. If the girls ever got their hands on one of those things, I don’t want to think about what may happen.
Thankfully, my phone rings, tearing me away from those terrible thoughts. I see it’s Maris and immediately answer, just in case something’s happened to one of the girls.
“Hey, Maris! What’s up? Is everything okay?” I ask as I start to pace across the bedroom floor.
“The girls are fine. I just wanted to know if you heard about that shooting that took place up on the trails. Five minutes ago, Alita called me to say she heard someone got shot up there. Have you or Connor heard anything about it?”
Oh, God. This is my worst nightmare come true. After all I’ve done to make sure Cassandra and Danielle are as popular as possible, all of my diligent work is about to be undone by onestupid thing. When everyone hears Connor was with that guy, they’re going to take it out on my girls.
I have to choose my words carefully here. Maris isn’t the type of person to immediately decide Connor’s guilty, but I need to lay the groundwork for any ugliness that may come later from some of the other mothers.
Forcing myself to smile and hoping I sound as casual and lighthearted as I usually do, I answer, “I heard about it at the coffee shop. It’s a terrible accident, I hear. The man didn’t mean to shoot anyone. He just made a mistake, I think.”
Maris lets out an audible sigh of relief. “Oh, thank God. I was worried we had a hardened criminal in our midst for a few seconds there. I knew you’d have the dirt, Jamie. Thanks so much for clearing that up. I feel like I can let the girls go back outside to enjoy the pool now that I know we don’t have a gun-wielding maniac running around.”
“Absolutely! I think it’s just a tragic mistake all around. I’m glad you were looking out for my girls, though. Thank you for that.”
“Oh, it’s my pleasure. Your daughters are practically angels, so it’s always great to have them stay over. I’ll let you go enjoy your night off from being a mom. Do you and Connor have anything special planned? Maybe a candlelight dinner or going out to a nice restaurant?”
I wish. Knowing my husband, he’s going to sit and stew about what happened up on that path all night. The best I can hope for is ordering in a pizza from that new place in town.
She can’t know that, though, so I have to lie.
“Oh, I don’t know. Between you and me, I think that husband of mine is planning something special because he’s been dropping hints all day. I’ll be sure to give you all the details tomorrow morning, if I’m not hungover, or Monday when I drop the girls off at practice.”
Maris sounds genuinely excited for my surprise and says, “Oh, that’s great! Enjoy yourselves tonight. I know how few and far between nights out can be when you have two kids. Don’t worry about Cassandra and Danielle. They’ll be fine here. We’re ordering pizza from Nico’s and making ice cream sundaes tonight. I know they should be watching what they’re eating because of gymnastics and the big meet coming up, but they’ll burn off all those calories, don’t worry.”
As much as I know I should be concerned with my daughters’ calorie intake, they’ve already made the team, so it’ll be fine. It’s Tiffanie who should be watching what she eats. She still hasn’t made the team, and if she doesn’t get that vault down pat, the only thing she’s going to have to make her happy is that pizza and ice cream.
“Thanks so much, Maris. You guys have fun tonight. I’ll be over to pick the girls up right around eleven tomorrow. Sound good?”
“That sounds perfect! Enjoy your night off tonight. You deserve it!”
I end the call and sit down on the edge of the bed. I can feel a headache starting because of all this craziness. Connor knows how hard I’ve worked to make sure the girls are successful and popular. Does he understand this one instance could upend all I’ve done? Then what are we going to do?
