“How did the game go?” she asks eagerly.
She brought Tommy to our preseason game last weekend since Cassidy had a training seminar for work and came to some matches with Mom last season.
I force a smile. “We lost.”
Lydia’s face falls. “Oh, I’m sorry, honey.”
I shrug. “It happens. Can’t win them all.”
Win Some, Lose Mostcould be the title of my autobiography.
“Maybe this can be a good-luck charm.” Lydia holds out the maroon scarf she’s carrying. “I finally finished it. Matches your hat.”
“Thank you so much.”
I give her a tight hug, and she pats me on the back.
“Let me know the next time you head down to visit your mom. I knit her some socks.”
“I will.”
Lydia gives me a sympathetic smile, which makes me think I’m not doing a great job of hiding my disappointment about the loss, and then heads back into her house.
I continue inside, calling out, “Cassidy? Tommy?”
A cheerful, “In here,” comes from the living room.
I hang up my coat and the scarf from Lydia in the front closet, then continue down the hallway and into the living room.
Cassidy’s curled up on the couch, nursing a glass of wine and flipping through a paperback.
“One of Mom’s?” I ask.
“Mmhmm.” She reaches for her glass, swallowing a healthy sip. “I’m, like, ten books behind.”
I smile as I sit on the rug. Mom’s written over thirty mystery novels, churning out one a year ever since she started writing during her maternity leave with Cassidy. By the time I arrived, it was her full-time career.
“Let me guess. You’ve read them all.”
“It’s not a competition, Cass.”
On the days Mom’s recollection of reality blurs, she retreats into her fictional worlds. I tried to reach her there.
I crane my neck to see the cover. “Who do you think did it?”
“The brother seems suspicious to me. Why was he wet when—don’t make that face!”
“What face?”
“That face. It’s not the brother?”
I lie flat on my back, lifting a leg to stretch my hamstring. “I said nothing.”
“I was sure it was the brother,” Cassidy mutters.
I drape an arm over my eyes, hiding my smile with the sleeve. It is the brother.
“Where’s Tommy?”
