Foul Play

“Well, what if the other kids have their phones out?”

“I’ll talk to Brenda,” I said. “Pretty sure she’ll be happy to thrown down a no-phone moratorium for the evening.”

Will frowned, then glanced at Emily. “Okay, fine, but if she pulls her phone out, I’m calling you because as far as I’m concerned, that’s an emergency.”

“That’s fair,” I said. “You hear that, Em?”

“Huh?”

“Did you hear that?”

“Sure?”

“Emily?”

She looked up from her phone, a

I sighed, wondering what the punishment was for tossing a teenager out of a moving car. I took a deep breath. “No phones after we leave.”

“But—”

“And if you take it out, Will has permission to call us,” I said, cutting her off. “End of story.”

She looked like I’d just shot her puppy.

“Andy will still be there in the morning,” I said, smiling at her in the mirror.

Her face flushed red and the rest of the kids howled.

Which actually felt better than tossing her out of the car.

SEVEN

“We should do that sometime,” Jake said, pointing out the window. “The corn maze thing.”

Joh

We’d dropped the kids at Joh

Jake looked at him. “What?”

Joh

Jake hit his signal and moved into the exit lane. “Uh, no.”

“I didn’t,” Brenda said, next to me in the back of the van. “I promise.”

“Those things are no joke, alright?” he said, jabbing his finger at the window. “I got stuck in there once. I’m never going back. Never.”

“You got stuck?” Jake asked, trying not to laugh.

“His phone died,” Brenda said. She glanced at me, her lips pressed together to keep a smile from blossoming. “And it was getting dark. Joh

“I didn’t have a moment,” Joh

“Did you not have a map?” I asked. The corn maze always handed out maps… and white flags to wave in surrender if the challenge proved to be too great. I’d never had to use mine.

“I did, I did,” he said. “But it wasn’t right. I followed it and it just took me deeper inside that labyrinth of danger.” He shook his head and shivered. “Never again, man. Never again.”

“It’s a thing for him,” Brenda whispered to me as we turned into the parking lot of Tres Amigos.

I raised my eyebrow at her and she stifled a laugh.

Jake parked the van and he and Joh

We waited at the hostess stand for a table and Brenda started telling me about the new instructor at the ballet school her girls attended. For the hundredth time, I reminded myself how grateful I was to have them as friends. As established as I was in Moose River, Jake and I had had a hard time co

We ordered drinks and appetizers and then our food as we all chatted about kids and jobs. Mary was cutting more teeth and Derek had decided to use a potted palm for potty training; I told them about Will hacking into Emily’s account and Joh

“He won’t have any trouble finding a job,” he remarked.

“Not if his sister doesn’t kill him first,” Jake said, dipping a chip into a terracotta bowl brimming with white queso.

We finished eating our di

“I might need your help next week,” Brenda said, polishing off the last bite of her enchilada.

“How so?”

“Joh

“Of course,” I said. I licked the last of the salt off the rim of the margarita glass. “Just let me know when.”

“I will,” she said, nodding. “I’d normally have her just miss since it’s only one practice, but our coach is kind of on fire because she thinks we actually have a chance to win the regional competition for the first time ever.”

“Really?”

Brenda nodded. “Yep. At least that’s what she’s saying. She’s kind of a loon, but she’s been pretty excited the last two days and she claims we have a legitimate shot. And if we were to win regionals, then we’d go on to the state tournament and that’s never happened. I’m skeptical, but she’s putting emphasis on the practices, so I hate to have Maddie miss.”

I nodded. I didn’t know much about cheerleading because none of our girls had ever shown an interest in it. But her girls were huge into ballet and dance. They’d added in cheer to supplement some of their skills in dancing. I’d heard lots of horror stories about parents and other girls and coaches over the last couple of years and while I knew Brenda’s girls got some positive things out of it, I was glad we weren’t immersed in that world.

“Though, I have to admit, I don’t feel very good about it,” Brenda said, frowning.

“What do you mean? About cheerleading?”

“About the competition,” she said. “And why our coach thinks we have a chance to win.”

I wasn’t following. “Because you’re better this year?”

“No. I mean, yeah, sure, we are. She’s done some good things with the girls and I’m pleased with Maddie’s progress.” She paused and reached for a chip in the half-empty basket. “But this one team, the Moose River Fusion? They’re a total powerhouse. Just really, really good. But our coach is all pumped up about our chances because the Fusion is going to be at a significant disadvantage. And that doesn’t feel too good to me.”

“Oh wow. That’s not so cool, ” I said, wrinkling my nose. “Is someone hurt on their team? Or did someone quit?”

She took a drink from her water glass and shook her head. “No, not exactly.”

“Not exactly?”

“So they have this girl, right?” Brenda explained. “She’s pretty amazing. We’ve seen her at a couple of competitions. She’s very pretty, she can jump through the roof and she’s a great dancer. She’s the kind of girl every coach would want to build a team around.”