I had just seen her at the block party, but I didn’t remind her of that. I had learned that no matter when you last saw another Winchester mom, you had to pretend like it had been eons. “Good. Just trying to get into a routine for the summer. You?” I said quickly as I moved my injured leg away from her.

“Same, same.” She cocked her head to the other side, in what I’m sure she imagined was a contemplative pose, before she launched in. “I’ve been meaning to call you about something.”

I lifted my eyebrows. Heather had never just called me about anything, something that I appreciated, honestly.

“I wanted to see if your friend Liz is okay. I ran into her on a walk yesterday, and she seemed very strange.” Heather’s eyes widened in fake concern. “And then, of course, there was her concerning behavior at the block party.” She smiled and stopped, waiting for me to fill in the blanks. Like socially engineered Mad Libs.

I stared at her for a moment, unsure of how to answer, before I finally said, “I think she’s doing okay.”

The standoff continued as we held polite smiles, each of us waiting for the other to say something.

She broke first. “Well, that’s good to hear.” She rolled her eyes. “The only good news. I’m so incredibly stressed right now. We can’t find anyone to chair the school’s midsummer ice-cream social and carnival, and I’m just too busy to do it myself. If only we had more hands on deck.” She slowly looked at me and smiled.

I was about to protest when she forged on. “Sharon was the previous chair, and she has a lot on her plate as a divorced mother. She did such a wonderful job in the past, and I know Summer enjoyed it last year. It’s great how some parents are so involved, but others just skate by and enjoy the fruits of our labor. I’m sure Summer will be so disappointed, but she knows that her mom does everything else for her.”

I thought of Jess and Del’s house, and how nearly every time I went inside, it looked like they had been robbed. It looked that way because Jess was always setting up elaborate obstacle courses for Summer or using their dining room table as an art studio, with paint and markers scattered everywhere. Or the afternoon dance parties I saw through the window. When Summer was at their house, Jess shared her best self. Of course, that didn’t mean anything to Heather. Her barometer was calibrated on a different level—one that meant Jess and the rest of us would never be worthy.

My lips curled down into a frown, and before I could stop myself, I said, “I’ll do it. I’ll organize the event.”