Page 20 of Recipe for Rivals
Fine. I would reserve judgment on Arcadia Creek a little longer.
The woman flashed straight white teeth. “I’m Kendall’s mom, Desi. You must be Alice’s mom.”
“Yes, Nova Walker,” I told her, reaching to shake her hand. She had a firm grip, reminding me of the lawyers in Carter’s firm. “We haven’t been here long. I’m so glad Alice and Kendall have seemed to hit it off.”
Desi looked at where our daughters were giggling together, practicing backbends on the grass. “Alice is sweet. I help out sometimes in class, so I’ve gotten to chat with her a few times.”
My neck prickled with an odd sense of awareness. Desi was still watching the girls, but her words felt loaded. Had she grilled Alice about our situation? Ormysituation? More people than I could count had bombarded me for information after Carter left. They cloaked their questions in sympathy, but really they just wanted the tea. Married people were especially eager to know how everything came to an end between us.
“Mom! Watch me!” Ben called. I gave him a thumbs up, and he started across the monkey bars.
“Is Kendall a gymnast?”
“Yes,” Desi said with gravity. “She’s on a small break right now, recovering from a sprained wrist, but she’ll be back at it soon. In the meantime, we have cheer.”
Kendall was now demonstrating how to twist from abackbend to facing the ground on her hands and feet, then back to a backbend. It was a feat of flexibility. Alice dropped to the ground, awed.
“Should she be doing that with an injured wrist?” I asked.
Desi made a clicking sound. “She knows her limits.” Her gaze moved to me. “I hear you came from New York City.”
“We did.”
“I love it there. We try to go at least once a year.Bigfan of Broadway,” she explained.
My entire life had been spent between Brooklyn and the Upper West Side, yet I had only gone to one Broadway show ever. It was during a school field trip, and our seats were on the highest row furthest to the right, so we didn’t have the best visibility. That was before Lasik, too, so I couldn’t see as it was. “I’ve seenWicked, but that’s it.”
“You haven’t gone toHamilton?” she asked, like I’d made an egregious sin.
“No, but I watched it on TV once Disney put it up.” I could tell immediately this wasn’t the right answer. “The music is great,” I put in, hoping to appease her sense of disgruntledness.
Desi gave me a quick smile. “You can see them in Dallas sometimes, too.”
If I wasn’t going to take a twenty-minute subway ride to watchHamilton, I wasn’t going to drive over an hour to watch it here, but she didn’t need to hear that. “Thanks for the tip.”
“Are you planning to join the PTA?”
“Do I have a choice?” I asked, laughing. “There is no one more persistent than a PTA president with a quota to fill.”
She blinked at me. “Well, I’m the president, but I promise not to pressure you too much.”
I should have known. The camel coat was too posh for anything less than Arcadia Creek Elementary’s It Mom. This whole conversation was just one strikeout after the next. I swallowed, my cheeks burning. “It would be kind of hard withmy work schedule the way it is. I’m not sure I’d have the time.”
“Everyone says that, but it’s really not terribly involved. Let me know if you change your mind. We have a spring carnival coming up and we can always use parents to man the stations.”
“Of course. If I’m not working, I’m happy to help.”
In true PTA president fashion, she managed to get a commitment to commit out of me. How did that happen? Apparently PTA witch voodoo crossed state lines.
Desi checked her watch, one I couldn’t help but notice kind of resembled Carter’s—a smaller, feminine version, but equally expensive. As far as new friends went, I wasn’t interested in pursuing anything with this woman. She’d done nothing but remind me of my ex, and I could tell I hadn’t made a good impression on her either.
“We’d love to have Alice over for a playdate sometime.”
I looked at my daughter and the sheer joy on her face while she tried to do a handstand beside Kendall and fell on the grass. Her giggles floated on the cold breeze and filled my heart. “I think she’d love that.”
We exchanged phone numbers and watched the girls play for a few more minutes before Desi called Kendall over and they said their farewells. I convinced Ben to get off the monkey bars, where he’d climbed to the top and was trying to crawl across. “Let’s go home and get started on your homework. Aunt Blair is going to call later, so we better finish up if you want to chat with your cousins before bed.”
They obliged immediately. I put my hands in my pockets while my children skipped ahead, down the empty road toward our apartment. The air was cold and smelled fresh, the only sounds a car and some chatter on the other side of the row of buildings, where Main Street was, and a man watering his dead grass a few houses down.