Eddy kept talking despite the interaction.
“It’s just that I think you’re in a really vulnerable state right now, and this might not be the best time to seek revenge on her and her cronies.” She fielded another ball that came our way, lobbing it back all the way across the field, placing it perfectly at the girl’s feet. “What if something happens again?”
I knew what she meant.
“Short of killing me entirely.” I shuddered. “I won’t let anything happen this time. I trust Boone when he says that she won’t be able to get into his house. He said that this new place, she hasn’t ever even been inside of it.”
She blew out a frustrated breath. “This is insane.”
It was.
“Have you ever heard of that Ida Bell lady?”
“Actually,” she said. “I have. She’s a nanny.”
“Really?” I asked. “For who?”
“Did you ever meet Koen?”
I struggled to come up with the name, or the face to go with the name.
“No, I don’t think I did.” I studied her. “Is he one of them?”
One of them meaning the escaped convicts that made this town their home.
“Yeah,” she whispered, glancing around as if the world could hear us. They couldn’t. We were in the middle of a soccer pitch with thirty girls screaming and laughing. “He has two really young kids. She just started nannying for him last month. And just sayin’, I’m only making assumptions that this is the same Ida Bell. But what are the odds that there would be two Ida Bells that live in the same town?”
She had a point.
“We should befriend her,” I said. “I’ll bet she has no freakin’ clue who her real parents are.”
“I’ll get with Birdee or Mable and see if they can introduce us,” she offered.
Birdee and Mable were also married to two of the escaped convicts in the county.
The women had formed a sort of trauma bond when it came to their men and their past lives.
I liked that Eddy had friends here.
I liked even more that she was glowing and living her life to the fullest now.
I couldn’t help but feel a little bit left out, though.
Another ball came sailing our way, and I stopped it before it could find a new home underneath the bleachers.
I juggled it for a minute or so before kicking it back to the senior that’d run our way.
“Wow,” the senior had said. “Maybe you could go undercover as a student and just sneak into our game and help us win.”
I snorted. “Y’all don’t need any help from us. You got this.”
The senior’s chest puffed out and her chin raised. “You’re right. We do have this!”
I winked and watched her go before turning back to my sister. “I need your full support on this, because I have a feeling this is going to really kick my ass.”
She threw her arm around me. “I can’t believe you’re pregnant.”
“Can’t you?”
