Abbie was supposed to have lunch with Michael today. She knows because Abbie had made him a card a few days ago while at Caroline’s kitchen table and she is still cleaning up glitter from it. So it either hadn’t gone well or it hadn’t gone on at all.

Hannah subtly shakes her head – ah. She really didn’t think she could hate Michael more than she did when she worked with him. But this divorce has shown her that actually, the depths of her hatred will go far deeper when it’s not just her that he’s wronging. He had a great kid like Abbie and… she clenches her fist tight enough that her nails bite into her skin, before she forces herself to unclench. The man had the perfect wife and the perfect kid – Caroline’s dream life – and hadn’t given a single damn.

When they come through the gate, she kneels down in the guise of re-tying her shoe, but more so to be on eye level with Abbie.

“Hey, so,” she starts, keeping her voice hushed, as she throws a look to her family over her shoulder. “We’re about to play a flag football game, and my team could really use a secret weapon. You in?”

Abbie glances over to where her family has their color coded ribbons around their waists. She shrugs and seeing Abbie so subdued gives Caroline a thousand and one ideas for how to get away with Michael’s murder. “I’m not really good at sports.”

“That’s why they’ll never suspect that you’re our secret weapon,” she explains, exaggeratedly rolling her eyes. “Come on, Abner, the team needs you. I need you.”

She gives Abbie a formal bow and offers her a hand. And there’s a certain kind of victorious feeling she gets when a small smile cracks over Abbie’s face. “Okay. If you need me.”

That feeling only multiplies tenfold when – about halfway through the game – Abbie gets so into it that a full-on giggle breaks from her lips. By the end of the game, Caroline and Abbie – teamed up with Todd and his two kids, which works perfectly because despite being the brother she gets along with the least, they are both ridiculously competitive – have defeated her other brothers, nieces, nephews, and her dad, who had been wearing both flag colors. Like the eight ball of Father’s Day flag football.

She hoists Abbie up into the air while she waves the blue ribbons from the losing team at Hannah, her laugh echoing through the air.

Caroline is laughing too, finding herself a bit breathless from the way Abbie throws her arms around her waist at full force when she puts her down. She makes eye contact with Hannah from across the yard, and she’s pretty sure she would do just about anything, any day, to be given the look Hannah’s giving her right now.