Thankfully, Sean has jogged over to the boy and seems to have the whole thing under control. Julie gives him some tissues from her purse, and he gets Leo putting pressure on it and tilting his head back. The first set of tissues gets soaked with crimson, but the second set fares better.
“My poor baby!” Julie cries as she tries to hug him. “We need to take you to the emergency room.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Sean says. “The bleeding seems to be stopping. I think he’s fine.”
“But his nose could be broken!”
“I don’t think so.”
Julie puts her hands on her hips. “Well, how do you know? You’re not a doctor.”
“I’ve got some idea. I broke mine—twice.” He taps the bridge of his nose, which is slightly crooked. “I think he’s okay. But you can take him in if you want.”
“Gee, thanks,” Julie mutters.
“I’m okay, Mom,” Leo says bravely. He’s a tough kid. You kind of have to be if Julie is your mother.
Julie turns around to glare at me. “This is all Bobby’s fault. What is wrong with that kid?”
My mouth falls open. “What are you talking about? It was an accident.”
Julie snorts. “Please. I heard him telling you how jealous he was of Leo. And you were telling him to kick the ball as hard as he could. He was aiming right for Leo’s face.”
I look at Bobby, who is hanging his head in the corner. A tear slips down his cheek. He didn’t hurt his best friend on purpose. If he could aim like that, he’d be the best kid on the team.
“It’s nobody’s fault,” Mark speaks up. “Sometimes kids get hurt during the game. Bobby didn’t mean to hit him. Now, Julie, if you want to take Leo to the emergency room—”
“Yes!” she snaps. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Julie grabs her son roughly by the arm and the two of them march off the field while Leo protests. God, I hope his nose isn’t broken. She’ll probably sue us.
No, she won’t really sue us. She’s just upset because her son is gushing blood from his nose. Julie can be very dramatic when she’s upset, but I’m sure she’ll calm down.
I start to go over to Bobby to see if he’s okay, but Sean is already bent down next to him, talking to him quietly. Sean’s shirt has Leo’s blood all over it, but he doesn’t seem bothered by it. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but I see a tiny smile spread across my son’s face.
While I’m watching Sean and Bobby talking, my phone buzzes inside my purse. It’s another text message. Probably Elliot, saying he’s off to the office for work. Saturday wouldn’t be complete without my husband rushing to work.
I pull out my phone and read the text message:
I know the secret of why Mark Tanner let you talk him into that other boy joining the team. And if you tell anyone about these messages, everyone in town will know it too.
I frown at the screen, an uneasy feeling in my chest. Then a second later, a photograph appears.
I gasp out loud.
“Are you okay?” Maria is squinting at me. “You’re not squeamish, are you? That was a lot of blood.”
“No, I’m fine,” I say quickly.
“Do you need to sit down?”
I shake my head vigorously. “I’ll be fine. Just… I need a minute.”
I step away from the crowd of parents and kids. I look at the screen of my phone, and the whole world seems to disappear around me. My fingers are shaking as I type in the words:
Who are you and what do you want from me?
I wait for an answer. But like before, there’s no response.
Chapter 11
Fine. Yes, I have a secret that isn’t the sort I would advertise on my YouTube show.
I kissed Mark Tanner.
It’s not like me at all. At all. I’m a good person—I swear. I brought Carrie Schaeffer no less than ten casseroles since her husband left her. When I’m driving, I always let people cut in front of me or make turns. They say that what you do when you drive shows what kind of person you really are deep down.
It was nothing. Just one kiss. Barely even a kiss. Mostly lip, hardly any tongue.
It all started when I was running the spring bake sale for the PTA, and Mark had volunteered to help me set up. Then he volunteered to give Bobby some soccer lessons. At first, it was just friendship. Nothing more. Mark would invite me out for breakfast after I dropped Bobby off at school. He would stop in during the day when Elliot was at work. But nothing happened.
Not that this is an excuse, but it wouldn’t have happened if Elliot were around more often. I mean, he spends more hours at work than he does at home, and that includes sleeping hours. And even though I knew I shouldn’t have, I started to complain to Mark about how little I saw Elliot anymore. How little attention he paid to me. How infrequently we had sex lately.
And then one day, while we were talking in my kitchen, he leaned forward and kissed me.
Of course, that’s as far as it ever went. The one kiss. I enjoyed it for maybe a split second, then I came to my senses and pushed him away. Of course I did! I couldn’t go through with something like that. I couldn’t do it to my husband or Mark’s wife. It was just wrong.
Yes, I felt neglected by Elliot, but I still loved him. And also, can you imagine what my Sweet Secrets viewers would think if it got out that I was cheating on my husband with another man?
I explained all this to Mark. And he totally got it. And now we’re just friends again. That’s it.
Yet somehow somebody has a photograph of Mark and me taken during that one kiss, snapped through my living room window.
One thing. I do one thing wrong in my entire life, and now I’m being threatened with it.
I have no idea what they plan to do with it. But a photograph like that could destroy my marriage if Elliot ever saw it. If it got out on the Internet, it would destroy my cooking show—part of my image is being a wholesome home cook, and nobody will want to watch me if I’m a cheating bitch. Nobody would believe that it just happened one time, and I pushed him away. This photograph could mean the end of my life as I know it.
I need to figure out who’s doing this. And what they want from me.
But one thing is certain. This person means business.
Chapter 12
Comment on April’s Sweet Secrets YouTube video:
Here’s a secret you don’t know about April Masterson:
She dropped out of culinary school after four months.
Is this the person you want to be taking cooking lessons from?
This afternoon, Sean took Bobby and Owen to the park to practice soccer. Bobby was so excited about it. There was a part of me that was scared he was never going to want to play soccer again after the incident with Leo （who did not have a broken nose, by the way）， but fortunately, the pep talk from Sean worked. He told me excitedly that he was going to get really good at soccer like Leo and Owen.
My latest video on making brownies went up this morning. Immediately, there was an onslaught of nasty comments. A lot of them just said my brownies looked gross, which they absolutely did not. But a few of them were more pointed.
Like the culinary school dropout one. I never told anybody about that. I used to have this idea in my head about being a chef, but as soon as I started culinary school, I realized it wasn’t for me. So I dropped out.