“I guess I always knew you guys were there for me if I needed you.” Johnny looked around the trailer. “Even if you wouldn’t let me all the way into the house.”

I laughed. “The second John and I move in to our new master suite, you can totally take over the cat room.”

“Great.” Johnny held his water bottle to his eye. “Not to get all mushy or anything, but hang onto that guy, okay? He really loves you. It’s all over him.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

No matter how early you arrived at a Bayberry Holiday Performance, coats, purses, nannies, and the occasional baby in a carrier would already be sprawled across the best seats. These items were planted as place holders by families who were either entitled or sneaky, or perhaps a hybrid of the two. Or maybe it was just the preschool version of camping out to get the best seats at a rock concert. While their seats were being saved, sometimes the families milled around in the all-purpose room, chatting with other families or talking on their cellphones. Sometimes they had the audacity to go out for a quick bite.

The first row of seats was reserved for Kate Stone and the teachers who weren’t on the holiday performance committee. In part, this was a gesture of respect. Mostly it was to keep them close enough to the stage to intervene at lightning speed if necessary. The reserved seats were individually marked with poster board signs. Just to be sure there was no room for misinterpretation, brightly colored yarn was wrapped around the entire section. A large RESERVED sign hung from the yarn enclosure.

Lorna shook her head, grabbed a winter coat and a designer purse that had invaded the reserved section to save two seats. Since the purse alone was probably worth more than a teacher’s salary for an entire month, there was no doubt at all that the items didn’t belong there. Lorna wound up, got ready to pitch them in the direction of the cheap seats.

Pandora’s mother came running up and held out her hand. “Oh, well, it was worth a try.” She gave Lorna and me a dazzling smile. “At least I didn’t let Pandora drive her Barbie jeep in and park it in the back of the room, which is what she wanted to do.”

“And you wonder why teachers drink,” Lorna said, possibly a little too loudly, as Pandora’s mother walked away.

I waved at two Bayberry graduates with younger siblings in tonight’s performance who were passing out programs for us. I tried to guess how old they were now. Third grade? Fourth?