“Miss,” he says. “Do you have any store merchandise in your purse?”
She wrenches her arm free, her expression indignant. “No. Of course I don’t!”
“You set off our alarm. I can’t let you leave without searching your purse.”
The babysitter looks like she might refuse, but she’s obviously in a bind. This big guy is not going to let her leave without checking her purse. So she thrusts it at his chest. “Here. Knock yourself out.”
It’s almost too horrible to watch, because I know what he’s going to find. It takes him all of five seconds to yank out the necklace inside. The tags are still intact. The babysitter’s eyes go wide.
“I didn’t put that there! It… it must have fallen inside…”
The guard shakes his head. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to call the police.” He looks to the back of the store. “Maria? We have a shoplifter here and I’m calling the cops.”
I only wish Carrie were here to see the look on the babysitter’s face. She looks like she’s about to pee her pants, especially when Maria strides over with a cold, almost chilling expression in her eyes. Maria can be pretty badass when she wants to be. I wouldn’t have thought so.
“Please don’t call the police.” The babysitter is crying now. “Please. I swear I didn’t take the necklace. I don’t know how it got in my purse.”
Maria’s expression is impassive. “It doesn’t help to lie.”
“Please, you have to understand…” The babysitter swipes at her eyes. “I got arrested for shoplifting a year ago, and the judge said if I got caught again…”
“I’m sorry.” Maria doesn’t blink. “Our store policy is to prosecute all shoplifters.”
The babysitter is still sobbing as they call the police. It’s funny because I always thought of my friend Julie as the person you could never mess with. But as it turns out, Maria is not somebody to mess with either.
I would never want this woman to be mad at me.
Chapter 13
To: Book Club Group
From: Julie
Subject: Re: Food items
Please share with the group which item you will be bringing as a refreshment to our book club meeting this week, so that we don’t replicate dishes. I will be bringing mini quiches from Giorgio’s.
To: Book Club Group
From: April
Subject: Re: Food items
I was thinking about making apple pie turnovers. Does that sound good to everyone? Or if not, I could just make a tray of brownies. Whatever you guys want!
To: Book Club Group
From: Carrie
Subject: Re: Food items
I will be bringing the heart of the babysitter on a stick. Kidding! Unfortunately. I’ll probably bring chips and dip.
April, my vote is for the turnovers. The last time I ate one of your brownies, I gained five pounds.
To: Book Club Group
From: Julie
Subject: Re: Food items
Please no store-bought salsa, Carrie.
To: Book Club Group
From: Maria
Subject: Re: Food items
April, apple turnovers sound amazing! Although ever since I tasted your brownies, I’ve been craving more.
Would mini pizzas be OK to bring? We’ve got a bunch in the freezer.
To: Book Club Group
From: Julie
Subject: Re: Food items
Maria, mini pizzas? I assume you are joking.
I’ve got a tray of apple turnovers balanced in one hand as I walk over to Julie’s house for our book club. I’ve also got the book in my purse, which is weighing it down considerably since the book is about five billion pages long. It’s called Feathers of Life, and it’s about a guy raising a bird.
I tried to read it—I really did. I got about two pages in, and I was just done. I simply couldn’t go on. I think it was the part where he was at the pet store, picking out varieties of birdseed. Life is too short to read boring books.
Julie gets uppity about us not reading the book, but for starters, she’s the one who always picks the book and they’re always terrible. Also, we never end up actually discussing the book. We talk about it for five minutes, then we end up discussing our husbands for another thirty minutes, then our kids for another thirty minutes, then clothing for another thirty minutes. Really, there’s no time to discuss the book. If I came to the book club hoping to discuss the book, I’d be pretty disappointed.
As I walk past Maria’s house, I see Sean on their front lawn, raking leaves. Nobody on our block rakes their own leaves. But the Coopers don’t have the kind of money that everyone else does. And Sean doesn’t seem upset to be raking leaves. He’s whistling to himself as he does it. He’s making it look fun. Half of me wants to say to hell with the book club and go rake my own lawn.
I raise my hand in greeting. “Hi!”
He stops for a moment and wipes sweat off his forehead. Even though it’s a nippy fifty degrees right now, he’s wearing only a T-shirt. “Hi, April. Maria is already at the book club.”
“Oh, great!” I hesitate, not quite wanting to move on yet. “Listen, I want to thank you again for helping Bobby with soccer.”
He grins at me. “Don’t mention it. I told you, it’s more fun with more kids.”
I adjust the tray of apple turnovers. “Would you like an apple turnover? I just took them out of the oven fifteen minutes ago.”
His eyes light up. “If they’re anything like your brownies, hell yeah.”
I peel back a tiny bit of the plastic wrap, enough that Sean can pick up one of the turnovers. He takes a bite and groans.
“Jesus Christ, April.” He takes another bite. “These are really, really good. Where did you learn to bake like this?”
“My secret is that I cook the apples in my own homemade caramel.”
“Oh, right.” He points a finger at me. “You have that YouTube show where you’ve got a different secret for every recipe, right?”
I feel my face flush. “You watched my show?”
He pops the rest of the turnover in his mouth. “Yeah. Maria put it on the computer. You’re pretty good in front of the camera.”
“Well, thanks.” I smile. “Would you like another one?”
He laughs. “I would, but are you sure you’ll have enough for the book club?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. I made way too many. Take two!”
He looks hesitant, so I remove the two extra turnovers myself and hold them out to him. （My hands are clean—I have excellent hygiene when it comes to handwashing. The secret to good food is good sanitary practices.） After a couple of beats, he takes the turnovers from me, and I feel his thumb graze my palm. At his touch, a tingle goes through my body.
All of a sudden, I’m feeling a little breathless. Sean’s eyes are on me, and I expect him to start eating the turnovers, but he doesn’t. He’s just looking at me.
“I’ll put these inside,” he says. “Don’t want to ruin dinner.”
“Sure,” I breathe.
His blue eyes are still on my face. “Thanks, April.”
“You’re welcome,” I manage.
I tear my eyes away from him. I can’t let him know what I’m thinking. Maria is becoming one of my best friends. I can’t be having these thoughts about her husband. And after that whole mess with Mark, I don’t want there to be even a hint of a scandal around me. It’s stupid to even think about it a little bit.