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“Nooooo!” Chloe wailed.
“Chloe, go to your room,” she told her daughter.
“How about we come to your house?” Tara said after a beat.
“No, no. Really.” Elizabeth forced out a half-laugh. Keep it light. Keep it light.
“Have you seen the news?” Tara suddenly asked soberly.
Elizabeth tensed, sensing where this was going as Chloe trudged away on leaden feet. “Um . . . do I even want to?”
“They’re talking about a woman who raced in and saved a little boy and his family from the car that smashed into Uncle Vito’s. Everybody wants to know who you are.”
Elizabeth gritted her teeth. She wanted to deny everything, but Tara had been there. Instead, she offered her same, lame excuse. “I just saw it happening.”
“From Lots Of Beef?” Tara’s tone said, I don’t think so. “I talked to Jade. She’s always said you knew Little Nate was going to fall, but you couldn’t have seen it. I’m thinking you did see it, somehow, even though you couldn’t have.”
“Sounds like you all think I’m some kind of freak,” Elizabeth said, her voice catching.
“Good God, no. We all love you, but what the hell’s going on? GoodGuy . . . and . . . Court . . .”
“You think I had something to do with . . . that?” she finished as Chloe was still within earshot, moving away by degrees.
“No. None of us think that. God, no! You couldn’t hurt a fly. But . . . something really weird is going on. You gotta admit that. Vivian was saying she really wants you to go to another meeting of that group, Sisterhood, and—”
“I’m not going back.” Elizabeth cut her off. “It wasn’t right for me.”
“Okay. All right. Fine. Don’t go. If it’s not right, it’s not right. But come out with us tonight. Talk to us. We’re your friends. Vivian’s got Deirdre’s nanny all set up at her house. We won’t be late, and it’s just us girls. No husbands.”
“Where’s Bill? If Vivian’s taking the kids . . .”
Hearing capitulation in her mother’s voice, Chloe returned in a flash, gazing at her with pleading eyes and clapping her hands together as if praying.
“He’s out of town on business or something.”
“Why does it feel like you guys are setting me up for an intervention?” Elizabeth asked, only half-joking.
“No intervention. Just drinks and friendship. And if you want to talk . . . we’re listening. Jade said you confided in her about a few things, but she didn’t say what.”
“Well, Jade told me to keep my thoughts to myself or people might think I’m crazy, in so many words.”
“You’re my best friend,” Tara said. “Come out with us.”
Chloe was practically hanging on Elizabeth’s leg, trying to listen in. “Am I going to Bibi’s?” she asked eagerly.
“Bibi’s going to be at Lissa’s,” Elizabeth said reluctantly.
“Then I want to go there. Please, please, please!!!”
“One hour,” Elizabeth said into the phone, caving.
“Meet at Vivian’s and we’ll go in my car,” Tara said quickly as if she expected Elizabeth to change her mind.
“The last I heard, you don’t even like Lissa,” Elizabeth reminded her daughter once she was off the phone.
“Oh, she’s okay,” Chloe said brightly.
“I’ll go,” Elizabeth told her. “But then I want to talk to you about the voice you’re hearing.
