“Oh. Sorry,” Ronnie muttered, feeling her cheeks flare. She had been running.

“No problem!” Carson chirped.

Ronnie’s hands shook as she hung Esme’s coat on a hook. Now a few moms were looking at her.

At Esme’s classroom door, her teacher, Miss Barnes, grinned at Esme’s approach. Her smile was so guileless that Ronnie was pretty sure she could cross the woman off her suspect list. “So nice to see you! We’re going to have a great day today!”

Ronnie pressed her hands to her heart. Then she turned to Esme, who was already pulling away. “Hickory dickory dock,” she murmured into Esme’s little ear.

“The mouse ran up the clock,” Esme answered back, serious if a little rushed. It was their little shorthand, the way they always said goodbye.

Esme ran off. Miss Barnes gave Ronnie a smile and was about to move on to the next mom, but Ronnie cleared her throat. “Um, sorry, this might be a weird question, but is it possible I could sit in with Esme today?”

Miss Barnes looked apologetic. “I’m afraid we don’t allow parents to be in the classroom except for birthdays. We find the kids are a little freer to express themselves without their parents around.”

Ronnie felt a pinch of annoyance. “Okay, it’s just, if you noticed Esme was unhappy during the day, or if anyone was being mean, you’d let me know, right?”

“Has she said someone was mean?” Miss Barnes’s mouth made an O.

“No! Of course not. I just get nervous . . .” She decided to change tacks. “Also, her device. That iPad thing?”

“Oh, yes!” The teacher beamed. “Esme’s so excited about it. All the kids are.”

“Do the kids share them? Like, does Esme play on another kid’s, while they play on hers?”

A crease formed between Miss Barnes’s brow. “If you’re worrying about germs, absolutely not. Only Esme is in possession of her device. That’s a rule we have in class.”

More kids pushed through the doorway. Ronnie moved away slightly to let them pass. Once a fresh batch of kids was settled, Miss Barnes looked back at Ronnie with a tiny expression of not exactly exasperation, but certainly the pull that she needed to be somewhere else. “Can I help you with anything more?”

Ronnie glanced across the room at Esme. She was already settled on the floor with a group of little girls; they were playing with a plastic tea set. There was no way she could sell the idea that she needed to hang around the classroom because Esme was having a hard time.

“Never mind,” she decided. “I’ll see you later!”