Page 43 of Bobby

“Because I lied. And she wanted to teach me a lesson.”

The girls are silent until Ivy giggles. “Like the song. ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire.’”

I nod. “Yup, that’s the one. My mama was mad at her, but she was right to do so.”

“What did you lie about?” Lily asks, still engaged.

“I said I didn’t eat her Halloween candy.”

“But you did?” Ivy inquires.

“Yeah. But the worst part was, I didn’t know I was allergic to coconut until then. I had a Mounds bar and broke out in hives. Mama took me to the hospital, and then we came back to Milly burning my pants in the front yard.”

Ivy laughs, but Lily just gives a small smile before looking down again.

“Lily.”

This time, she looks up. Just a little. Her fine wisps of hair at the front of her hairline, matching the color of her mother’s and sister’s, tease her eyelashes. She and Ivy are the spitting image of Willow, and I can’t help but want to take on the world for them.

“If I tell you one of my secrets, will you tell me yours?” I ask.

Lily looks at her sister, then back at me and nods slowly.

“I have a crush on your mommy.”

“You do?” Her eyes go wide as she fully lifts her head to look at me.

I nod. “I do. It’s a big crush too.” I look at her, then at Ivy. “But I’m not ready for her to know. Do you think you can keep that a secret between us for now? I promise to tell her, and I don’t want you to hide things from her, but I think this is an okay secret to have. Don’t you?”

She and Ivy nod so fast, I almost fear they’ll get whiplash.

“Thank you. Now your turn.”

I wait patiently, noting Ivy nodding at Lily, giving her the encouragement to tell me.

“Mr. Weaver wants me to keep a secret. Told me not to tell anyone, not even Mommy.”

I tense up and hear the creaking from the front seat. Marco is either adjusting in his chair, or the armrest is getting a dent from the pressure he’s inflicting on it.

“What’s the secret?” I press gently.

“I asked him if I could pick the warm-ups like Ivy did.”

“Mr. Weaver is the PE teacher. I had to work for a month to become the student leader for my grade,” Ivy explains.

“Yeah, and I wanted to be the student leader for my grade.”

“Except they don’t do that for kindergartners,” Ivy says, once more interrupting to give me more details, which I appreciate.

“Right. I didn’t know that. He said I needed to talk to him at recess about it, so I went after lunch to see him, and he told me to come to his office. He said that kindergartners don’t get picked because it wouldn’t be fair to everyone. But if I wanted to help him at recess, I could be the student leader, and no one would know.”

“What did he want you to help him with?”

Watching Lily shut down before my eyes has me fighting harder than anything in my life not to hit something.

“Lily.” I need to know. Even if it will be hard to hear, I have to know. The man’s dead already for making Lily keep a secret. Knowing more just tells me how much torture will be bestowed on him before his last breath.

“He said I could help pick up around his office, and then, if we finish that, we could watch TV together because he gets lonely.”