Page 95 of Recipe for Rivals

Gigi hadwater boiling in her kettle when we arrived at the house. She ushered both kids into the kitchen to assemble their hot chocolate and make some toast to dunk in it. “Sewing box is on the sofa,” she called before they disappeared.

I got thirty blissful, quiet minutes on Gigi’s plush floral sofa, hearing my kids put aside their feud and giggle together while I stitched Peaches’ arms back on with white thread that didn’t quite blend in but wasn’t too obvious either. Once the second arm was firmly in place, I leaned my head against the back of the couch and breathed. Everything felt so much worse in the moment, but time helped soothe each of the awful bits I’d endured this evening. All of them but one.

Kristen.

“Mom!” Alice said, rushing into the room in her Ugg-style Target boots and Barbie nightgown. She had chocolate smeared and dried on her upper lip. “Gigi said we can have a sleepover!”

“On a school night?”

“No, she said it has to be Friday or Saturday. She said it was up to you.”

Gigi came through to the living room and sat on the sofa beside me with a sigh. “What do you think, lovey?”

I thought it sounded absolutely marvelous. “The fundraiser is this weekend, but we can do Friday.”

“Let’s do Saturday,” Gigi said. “You can go to the fundraiser and take yourself out for an ice cream afterward.”

“I think it’s a family event.”

Gigi looked at me. “I know.”

“I want ice cream,” Ben said, joining us.

“We’ll have our own fun,” Gigi said.

Why did it feel a little like scheming? I eyed her. “Don’t you want to go to the fundraiser?”

“No. I’ve been to plenty, and I’ll go to plenty more.” She smiled at me. “But I know you won’t want to miss it.”

There was a hidden message there. I tried to figure out what she was trying to say.

Gigi leaned down and lowered her voice, looking at the kids. “Will you both go upstairs and see if I have enough pillows in the guest room? Then you’ll know if you need to bring your own. Count the blankets folded on the cedar chest, too.”

“What’s a cedar chest?” Ben asked.

“It’s the wooden box at the end of the bed. Work together, okay?”

“Okay!” they said in unison and ran up the stairs.

I cut the final thread and lowered Peaches onto my lap. We didn’t have much time and I didn’t want to waste it. “What are you trying to say?”

“The kids told me about Carter.”

“That Ben won’t talk to him?” I asked.

“No. Alice told me Carter doesn’t want to talk to them very much, and today you fought on the phone.”

I had a hard time seeing how what we did could be misconstrued as fighting, but the reality was that kids could often read emotions better than adults did. They were intuitive. “Apparently he has a girlfriend, and she just moved in with him. I haven’t told the kids yet.”

Gigi’s face hardened. “How are you?”

“Not hurting, I promise. He can move on. But the woman answered his phone tonight, which threw me off. I left so many of my things there. I just…I don’t like the idea of someone else having them. You know we couldn’t fit everything in my car.”

“Then go back and get them.”

I laughed.

“I’m serious. I’ll take the kids for a week if that’s what it takes. Go back and get your things.”