“Nina!”
Amanda, the woman from the drop-off line, hurried over. She wore a red dress and sweater that looked a little too thin for the cool autumn day, as well as a string of pearls. She beamed at Nina.
“How are you?”
“Good, thanks. And you?”
“Oh, doing well, thank you. You know how it is with the start of the school year, though. It’s already October, and I still feel like I’m playing catch-up!” Amanda chuckled and waved a hand. “I can’t even imagine what it’s like for you, with Jack starting at a new school.”
“It has been a lot,” Nina admitted.
“We didn’t get a chance to chat much earlier, so I was hoping we could talk now.” Amanda took a chair beside Nina. “New faces around here are always fascinating. So many of us have known each other since we were in diapers!” She smiled.
“Of course we can talk,” Nina said. “I’d love to get to know you, too.” Her words sounded awkward to her own ears, but she tried to ignore that.
“First of all, did you just move here?” Amanda asked. “It’s unusual for students to start after the beginning of the year.”
“I’ve actually lived in Boston for years,” Nina explained. “But my… boyfriend Theo and I just moved in together, so we decided to send Jack to a closer and better school.”
“Theo Hillman?” Amanda asked. “That’s right, I saw you with him the other morning. I had no idea he was dating seriously! I always saw him with such bimbos, if you’ll excuse me saying it. A new one every week, it seemed. Or at least my husband, Lucas, thought so. Anyway, I’m glad he’s settling down now.”
“Me too,” Nina said stiffly. She got the feeling Amanda was making fun of her in some subtle way, though she wasn’t sure. Maybe this was just how rich people talked.
“How did the two of you even meet?” Amanda asked. “I haven’t seen you at any of the events.”
Panic spread through Nina’s limbs. She and Theo had never discussed their cover story. What if she said one thing, he said something else, and their ruse came out? She’d have to try to be as vague yet as truthful as possible.
“We’d seen each other around a few times,” Nina said carefully. “But in the end, we just ran into each other on the street and got to talking.” It was as close to the truth as she could get. Hopefully, Theo would have the same instinct to be honest.
Though Nina doubted it, the more she thought about it. He seemed more the type to concoct an elaborate but wholly believable lie.
“How did you meetyourhusband?” she asked quickly, hoping to switch the topic over to Amanda and avoid an interrogation.
“Oh, Lucas?” Amanda smiled. “He’s a neurosurgeon, you know, and my family have always been patrons of local hospitals. We met at a fundraising event, oh, ten years ago now. And we’ve been together ever since!”
“How nice,” Nina said.
“Of course, it’s hectic with his surgery career and my law career, but so it is.” Amanda shrugged with a smile. “The struggles of working parents, and all that. I didn’t catch your job, by the way.”
“I work in sales,” Nina said, again as vaguely as she could. Her gaze drifted back to Theo, who was laughing with the group of men he was standing with. If only she had his easy banter.
“I see,” Amanda said. There was a slight pause, then Amanda launched into another round of questions. Nina was beginning to get a headache. At least Jack seemed to be having fun. He andhis new friend, Sam, were racing each other down the inflatable slide and shrieking with laughter. They’d been joined by two other boys, who seemed to be enjoying themselves too.
Nina was happy for her son. And she was happy for Theo. But she felt like a real fish out of water among the wealthy crowd. Thankfully, after a while, two other women, friends of Amanda’s, joined them at the table. The conversation moved on to school gossip (apparently, one of the second-grade teachers was dating one of the parents), and Nina forced her shoulders to relax now that she was out of the spotlight.
Still. It was going to be a long afternoon.
CHAPTER 11
THEO
“And that’s why I never fly alone on the private jet anymore!”
Everyone laughed, Theo included. He was standing with a group of dads including Charles Ackley, Lucas Peters, and a third man, Samuel Li, who’d introduced himself as the head of a prominent Boston-area art museum. Amazingly, all four of them were dads (or fake dads, in Theo’s case) of kids starting kindergarten.
“I wouldn’t either, in your shoes,” Charles said, shaking his head. “I can’t even imagine.”
“Well, that’s what I get for being too cocky about my pilot’s license,” Lucas said with a shrug. “In my family, everyone gets a pilot’s license by the age of eighteen. It’s as normal for us as getting a driver’s license. In fact, the pilot license may be a little more important!”
