“Gross,” I whispered and headed down the hall back toward the playroom. I had to pass the office to do so and stopped once again at the sound of Melanie’s voice quietly tinkling out.
“Hey. We’re good for the weekend after next. Scott is going to be out of town.”
I strained to make out any clue as to who she was talking to, though I had a good idea.
“Don’t worry about it. I convinced him,” she continued. Another pause passed while she listened. “How do you think? The most surefire way to convince a man to do anything.”
I silently confirmed my suspicion as to how Melanie wielded control over her husband.
“Yeah, well, three minutes on my knees is well worth fifty thousand in profits.”
I managed to throw my hand over my mouth before I gasped. I fully expected Bray to have been mistaken about the whole situation, but here I was overhearing proof he wasn’t.
Melanie clucked her tongue, suddenly sounding annoyed. “I know it’s not enough, but what else are we supposed to do? It’s been three weeks already. If Scott finds out I put a lien on the house, there’s no amount of time on my knees or in any other position that could fix it.”
Thankfully, my hand was still over my mouth because I gasped again.A lien on the house?I took quick inventory of my surroundings—the polished floors, the high ceilings, the fact this house had four bedrooms and two officesanda guesthouse—and estimated in this part of California, it would go forat leastfour million.
If Melanie put a lien on something as valuable as her house, that meant she was desperate. Really,reallydesperate.
I whipped out my phone again to text Bray.
I think our girls are in some bad debt.
Melanie sighed, and I shoved my phone back in my pocket. “I’ll see you at the park in fifteen or so,” she said. “I’ve got to help the new nanny wrangle the kids.” I gathered she was talking to either Sandra or Jana, but I didn’t stick around to find out since she was going to come looking for me any second.
The Del Rio neighborhood park was something to behold. A rolling green lawn, pristine playground equipment, sparkling drinking fountains, a cluster of picnic tables without a spec of graffiti on them, and public bathrooms I was pretty sure had floors clean enough to sleep on.
And it wasn’t only the amenities. The people occupying the park on a sunny Saturday morning were even more impressive.
The moms and dads, and a few nannies I presumed, basked in the morning glow and their children’s laughter like a commercial for parenthood. They made it look like an elite club of smiles and unbridled joy that wasn’t just hours of screaming and sticky hands. I wondered if it was in fact some kind of performative exhibition. Showing off their mastery of childrearing to the other locals like it was a competition. Who could make it look easiest? I noted how happy everyone appeared: the moms laughing together in little groups, the dads pushing strollers in T-shirts and baseball caps—a sight that stirred something primitive inside me I did not know existed.
Back at the house, Melanie had led me to the garage and instructed me to load a large wagon with toys and snacks and a picnic blanket—truly, enough to survive in the wilderness for days. I’d towed it three blocks to the community park while she walked in front of me, her children’s hands in each of hers, and now, we were setting up camp on a shady lawn along with Sandra and Jana and their respective broods.
Sandra leaned back on her arms, making it look like her pregnant belly was a ball pinning her down. Jana held a tiny little girl with a shock of dark hair sticking straight up in a pink bow, and Melanie gazed out at the playground, watching the kids before, I presumed, she passed the task to me. All around us stood an assortment of baby gear: Jana’s off-roading stroller; another just like it but bigger that belonged to Sandra; tote bags sprouting spit rags, teething rings, toys that looked like they made obnoxious sounds; our wagon with toys for olderkids: balls, buckets, plastic shovels. We even had a platter with strawberries; something Sandra brought, which looked home baked and crumbly; and little juice boxes.
Once the camp was set, Melanie looked at me expectantly. She nodded at the playground where her children had already tangled themselves on the jungle gym, as if dismissing me to chat with her accomplices.
I would have given anything to dive behind a tree to stay and listen.
I dutifully returned her smile and headed off toward the woodchipped play area where a dozen or so kids flung their bodies at play equipment. Kaden and Karli both hung upside down from their knees on a metal bar, their faces tomato red and giggling. I wasn’t sure what to do but followed an instinct and tickled Karli. She sent a shrill shriek of laughter into the air when I caught sight of a familiar figure in the distance.
Agent Bray stood under a tree next to the playground. In an effort to blend in, he had worn a hat and sunglasses, and I had been right: He looked fantastic in a tight T-shirt.
But still.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered.
“What?” Karli asked, her voice wobbly and hoarse from being upside down.
Bray caught my eye and nodded his head like he wanted to talk.
I shook mine as discreetly as I could and turned my smile back to the kids. “I said you’re like a monkey in a tree.” I attacked her with more tickles and sent her into a giggling tizzy.
“I’m a monkey too!” Kaden bellowed, and I moved my tickling fingers to him.
I spent the next ten minutes climbing in and out of the jungle gym with them, pretending to be a jaguar, because Kaden declared it so. I felt my phone intermittently buzzing in my pocket throughout those ten minutes and knew Bray wastexting me because I could see him tapping his phone across the park.
I was about to grab my phone and text himSTOP ITor maybe a string of middle-finger emojis, when my phone began buzzing with the sustained cadence of an incoming call. I internally rolled my eyes that Bray had graduated from texting to calling—Wallace never would have done either with my targets so close by. When I looked to the tree to silently scold Bray, he wasn’t there. Wherever he was, he desperately wanted my attention, and he wasn’t going to stop.
