“Everything okay?” I asked.

“We’ll talk later,” he muttered. “Where’re the boys?”

“Downstairs.”

He nodded, his eyes going down the hall. He lifted his hand to my neck and after a short, preoccupied squeeze he walked down the hall and disappeared through the door to the basement.

I watched.

And while I watched, it was not lost on me in any way that not once, not even in the beginning when he was Jake, he was undercover, and all sorts of shit was going down, had he ever been distracted and preoccupied with me. I always had his full attention. Always.

I helped the girls do the dishes. Then Elvira said good-byes to everyone, gave her thanks, and I walked her to her car.

“Your bad boy is hot,” she stated bizarrely, standing with me at her driver’s-side door.

“What?” I asked, having walked with her while in my head and finally focusing on her.

“Your bad boy is hot,” she repeated. “She instigated a play.”

“Sorry?” I asked, feeling my brows draw together.

“Tess, hon, her ex-bad boy, ex-hot boy just hooked his star to a brand-new, bright and shiny moon. He’s into his new moon. He traded up. He likes it. He’s gonna stay awhile. She knows this probably from her boys. She don’t like it. She instigated a play. Looks of her, she’s got a big playbook. She may not want him but she doesn’t want anyone else to have him. Or she thinks she’s all that and never thought he’d move on and doesn’t like it that he has. It shook her awake and she’s finally lookin’ around and sees what she’s missin’. I’ll give it to her. It was a good play, drama, tears, family as an audience. But if he got shot of her ass, he’ll see through it. You just need to keep your chin up.”

I stared at her, wondering if it was actually true that people did that kind of thing.

So I asked, “Do people actually do that kind of thing?”

“Uh… yeah,” she answered.

“They have children,” I told her.

“Right, Tess, and heads up. Right now, to her, whatever her game is, those two boys just stopped bein’ boys and they became pawns.”

Oh my God.

“She wouldn’t,” I whispered.