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Back The Mother Next Door Save as PDF
Chapters (84)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. HALLOWEEN
  6. Seven Weeks Before Halloween
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. HALLOWEEN
  11. Six Weeks Before Halloween
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. HALLOWEEN
  16. Five Weeks Before Halloween
  17. SEVEN
  18. EIGHT
  19. HALLOWEEN
  20. NINE
  21. TEN
  22. HALLOWEEN
  23. ELEVEN
  24. TWELVE
  25. Twenty-Five Days Until Halloween
  26. THIRTEEN
  27. FOURTEEN
  28. HALLOWEEN
  29. FIFTEEN
  30. SIXTEEN
  31. SEVENTEEN
  32. EIGHTEEN
  33. NINETEEN
  34. TWENTY
  35. HALLOWEEN
  36. Eighteen Days Until Halloween
  37. TWENTY-ONE
  38. TWENTY-TWO
  39. HALLOWEEN
  40. TWENTY-THREE
  41. TWENTY-FOUR
  42. Eleven Days Until Halloween
  43. TWENTY-FIVE
  44. TWENTY-SIX
  45. Eight Days Until Halloween
  46. TWENTY-SEVEN
  47. TWENTY-EIGHT
  48. TWENTY-NINE
  49. HALLOWEEN
  50. THIRTY
  51. Four Days Until Halloween
  52. THIRTY-ONE
  53. HALLOWEEN
  54. THIRTY-TWO
  55. Two Days Until Halloween
  56. THIRTY-THREE
  57. The Night Before Halloween
  58. THIRTY-FOUR
  59. HALLOWEEN
  60. THIRTY-FIVE
  61. Halloween, Present Day
  62. THIRTY-SIX
  63. THIRTY-SEVEN
  64. HALLOWEEN
  65. THIRTY-EIGHT
  66. HALLOWEEN
  67. THIRTY-NINE
  68. HALLOWEEN
  69. FORTY
  70. HALLOWEEN
  71. FORTY-ONE
  72. FORTY-TWO
  73. FORTY-THREE
  74. FORTY-FOUR
  75. HALLOWEEN... NOW
  76. FORTY-FIVE
  77. Seven Months Later
  78. FORTY-SIX
  79. FORTY-SEVEN
  80. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  81. ALICE SWANSON’S
  82. Reader's Guide
  83. Questions for Discussion
  84. Booklist

Lily flipped down the sun visor and used the mirror to add a few bobby pins to her hair. “Besides, it was for a good cause.”

“So you skipped school to volunteer at the nursing home?”

She gave a big, deep, you-don’t-understand-anything sigh. “We were looking for my costume. A wedding dress. Ellen knows this really great vintage store, but it’s only open during school hours.”

I bit my lip, not wanting to get into how wrong her rationale was. I knew from experience, after all, that when you really wanted to do something, you were going to find any way to justify it. Like my relationship with Greg. Hadn’t I been really good at convincing myself it was okay?

I thought about the photo in Alice’s scrapbook of the Ivy Five from 2005. That was the year Greg and I had been together. While Jackie had been sitting with the Ivies in their matching costumes, I’d been across town with my fiancé, thinking about her husband. Ironically, we’d all been witches that year. Them in their capes and hats and me in the Good Witch/Bad Witch costume.

I still couldn’t believe Kendra hadn’t mentioned they were best friends with Greg’s ex-wife. Though, why would they? Kendra knew I was friends with Greg. Maybe she’d even figured I’d already made the connection.

Besides, I couldn’t expect them to spill all their histories right away.

I certainly hadn’t.

At the front of the school, the flow of traffic confused me, and I didn’t want to admit I had no idea where to go. I’d never driven Lily in the mornings.

“I’m grounding you this weekend,” I said as I tried to read the school signs. “You can’t just skip school without consequences.”

Lily’s eyes widened. “But there’s a football game on Friday!”

“Exactly. And you can listen to it through your bedroom window.”

A glare, nice and nasty.

I took a road that wound around the flat gray building. “Well, I hope you have a good”—Lily unbuckled her seat belt and slid out the door before I could even fully stop the car—“day,” but my words were drowned out by the slam of the door.

That went well.

I hated punishing her—I’d skipped school myself as a kid—but it seemed like every conversation we’d had over the past few weeks, from leaving laundry wet in the washer to coming home late on a school night, had ended in an explosion. And now the lying?

But it’s okay for you to lie to her, Theresa?