Peaches wondered if it would be okay to ask about the quality of the pot, since she was the one who had purchased it for them. Liam and Greg might both be sort of impressed. She could even ask to try some. Liam could try it too. Greg used to take off his pants whenever he smoked pot. He probably shouldn’t have any.

A face appeared behind the glass pane to the right of Stuart Little’s front door. A small hand slapped the glass.

“Ted?” Mandy’s green eyes widened. She tried to stand up, reaching for the railing and missing it completely.

“Holy shit.” Stuart grabbed her and steadied her before she toppled down the steps. “Just a sec, Teddy!”

“You guys okay?” Greg called up to them.

“We’re okay!” Stuart shouted back way too loudly.

“Mom, Dad,” Liam whined. “Maybe we should just leave them alone?”

“Come on, guys.” Peaches steered Big Boy back the way they’d come.

“That was fucking Stuart Little from the Blind Mice.” Greg was clearly miffed. “You know him?”

Peaches bristled. “Yeah, their kid goes to my school.” She yanked on the leash, forcing Big Boy to pick up the pace.

“You work at a public school now and the kids get even richer,” Greg scoffed.

Anticipating a parental spat, Liam shoved in his AirPods and strode on ahead.

Peaches knew Greg would be weird about it. Weirdly jealous.

Greg had been the big man on campus at Oberlin, at least in the music department. But you don’t get rich and famous like Stuart Little majoring in ancient woodwinds and double-minoring in accordion and banjo. You wind up teaching music at a private elementary school to support the younger day student English major from small-town Ohio who liked to play the drums and had to drop out of college altogether because you knocked her up. Greg was so annoying. Hadn’t she tortured herself and gotten her nursing degree and the school nurse gig for precisely this reason, to stop him from constantly making comments about money? She was making the big bucks now, picking nits off famous dads and their spawn. Even Liam had two jobs, tutoring that girl and at the Strategizer. Sure, they lived on the wrong side of the Gowanus in a small street-level rental, but they were fine. Getting to know Stuart Little was the highlight of her current existence. Only Greg could turn something fun into a huge bummer.

“I guess they must be rich,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she added, even though she wasn’t sorry at all.

Chapter 6