I was humiliated to have to walk all the way around the perimeter of the field and back to my seat as the players lined up again. As if I wasn’t feeling self-conscious enough, Dabney was waiting to say, “Smooth,” when I got to the bleachers.

“Is he okay?” one of Ben’s friends asked. I couldn’t help but notice that Ben was gone.

“Yeah,” I said. “I think so. They’re checking him out now.”

I sat down and whispered breathlessly to Dabney, “Sophie and I were on either side of him when he was kind of waking up, and he said Iris.” I said my own name like it was the password that unlocked the door to a magical kingdom.

Dabney and I both squealed. “He’s totally going to dump her for you!” she whisper-shrieked.

Chloe reappeared, hair mussed and lips red. “What did I miss?”

Dabney and I rolled our eyes at each other. “Subtle, Chloe,” Dabney said. “You can barely tell you’ve been making out.”

“Oh, good,” Chloe said, missing the sarcasm.

“What you missed is that Merit loves our girl, not Sophie.”

“What?” she asked breathlessly.

I shook my head. “That’s a serious overexaggeration.” But was it? As Dabney and Chloe chattered about what had just transpired, I thought of Merit, of the way he looked at me when he opened his eyes. I wasn’t reading into that, was I? It had been real. We had definitely had a moment. And I couldn’t wait to get home and find out if maybe, just maybe, we could have another one.

Charlotte Greatest Hits

“I feel guilty for not going to visit Bill today,” I said to Alice as I helped her set the table.

“You went yesterday, Charlotte,” Grace said. “You have a job and a child to raise. You’re doing your best.”

She had a point. Even still, that longing I was used to now, that felt like a part of me, swamped me. What I wouldn’t give to be back in my house with my husband. Or, well, anywhere with my husband for that matter. Anywhere but jail, that is.

It was so incredibly frustrating. Everyone seemed to be Team Bill and public perception was shifting in a way that I did think could be helpful for us. I just wanted it to be helpful faster.

Julie walked down the steps, groaning, her three clean little ones trailing behind her.

At that exact moment, there was a knock at the door. Her ex, Houston, very rarely showed up when it was his time with the kids. She never even told them anymore when he was supposed to come. But it appeared that tonight was the exception to the rule. Alice crowed over how fresh and clean the girls were as Julie opened the door and said, “Only three hours late. Not bad.”