“You could come with me!”
“Lesson plans,” Rachel said in a singsong voice.
I looked expectantly at Abi.
“Background checks,” she sang in the same tune.
“Fine,” I said.
“Fine. And the meeting starts in ten minutes, so you’d better head that way.” Our normally stoic Abi was entirely too happy about this turn of events.
“I’ll go, but I want you to do a favor for me,” I said, my heart beating wildly as the words escaped.
“Oh?”
“I do want you to see if my husband is having an affair.”
Her body language shifted into something like cautious resignation. “Are you sure this is something you want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Consider it done.”
“Thank you.”
They left me to my undeserved punishment, and I weighed driving versus walking. At least walking would burn some calories, so I went back to the house for a warmer coat and told Mom I was headed to the HOA meeting.
“Why?”
“Mom, you know how strict some Homeowners’ Associations are?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s one of those. I drew the short straw.” Or lost at freakin’ rock, paper, scissors. Whichever.
“What time will you be back?”
Of course, Mom didn’t want to go to the meeting with me. There were limits even to a mother’s love. “Ten or so.”
“That long?”
“Oh, I’m sure there’s a lot to discuss about lawns that need to be mown, houses that need to be painted, suspicious people who aren’t really suspicious.”
“Well, be careful,” Mom said as she turned on the TV. She’d decided to bingeOutlanderwhile I still had cable. She was too frugal for the premium channels, and I was about to follow her example.
I muttered as I left our cul-de-sac at the end of Oregon Trail. I muttered all sorts of things about rocks, paper, and scissors and a few about Jamie Fraser.
“Hey! Wait a minute!”
I turned to see Parker, who was easily catching up to me with his longer strides. My heart beat double time, and I reminded the traitorous organ that this was not the time to be twitterpated. In fact, I probably had a crush on Parker only because he was the opposite of Mitch in every way: younger, more handsome, not guilty of abandoning his wife.
“Going to the HOA meeting?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I got a note about weeds in my flower beds, and I want to see what this is all about.”
“Dawn Crawford is going to be on you like white on rice and black on coal.”
“Who?”
