For All She Knows (Potomac Point #3) - Jamie Beck Page 0,116

after confessing how it would feel like a pretense. “Good night, Sam.”

I left his office feeling the worst I’d felt since this trauma began. Would a good night’s sleep be enough for me to summon the will to offer the warmth he needed in the hopes of saving my marriage?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

MIMI

Wednesday, February 24

A Cut Above

“That was nice of you to start the GoFundMe page for Carter.” Cassandra Lenox continued to scroll through her phone while I snipped the back of her hair.

“I hoped to bring the community together.” I raised another hank of hair to cut, thinking about my meeting with Mr. Richards, the science curriculum leader, set for early tomorrow morning. The phone rang, but Vicki answered it.

“Haters still be hatin’ . . . on both sides.” Cassandra looked at me in the mirror. She wasn’t wrong, although some of Grace’s friends voiced appreciation of my efforts.

“It’s Rowan,” Vicki said.

“Excuse me a sec,” I said to Cassandra, then took the phone from Vicki. “What’s up, bud?”

“My grounding is over this weekend, right?” The lack of greeting and obnoxious tone of his voice grated on my nerves.

He’d been on me about ending his punishment, but I’d been dragging my feet, knowing Dirk was watching my every move. “Can this wait until I get home? I’m at work.”

“Tim Johnson’s taking a few guys to his place in the Poconos. Can I go?”

“You don’t even ski.”

“There’s other stuff to do, like sled and skate. I haven’t hung out with the guys in forever. Please.”

He’d been living up to the terms of his sentence and my grounding, and I knew how much he missed his friends. I wanted to make him happy, but how would Grace feel if she got wind of Rowan being off on a vacation while Carter still hadn’t come home? “Who else is going?”

“John and Deshaun and Gary.”

Oh man. Thinking about how Jordan treated me at the basketball game made me shudder. “I don’t know, Ro. The Johnsons aren’t exactly strict, and we don’t need more trouble right now.”

“I won’t do anything stupid.”

“I’ll think about it and call Betsy.” This would be dicey. I didn’t want Betsy to know about Dirk’s threats, nor did I want Grace to think that Rowan and I weren’t sensitive to Carter’s situation. If I told Betsy that Rowan wasn’t allowed to drink, would that ostracize him? Would she even listen? This must be exactly how Grace and some other parents felt about dealing with me all these years.

“Fine,” he grumbled.

“I suggest you change your attitude if you want me to agree. I’ll call you later.” I hung up and returned to Cassandra’s hair, already exhausted by the prospect of the uncomfortable conversation and decision heading my way.

“Trouble with your son?”

“It’s been a bumpy road enforcing new rules.”

“Honestly, Mimi, telling kids no doesn’t actually stop them from doing anything. It only makes them hide their behavior. Better to provide safe spaces for drinking and make your kid feel safe talking to you about stuff rather than making them afraid of getting in trouble.”

“That’s what I always thought, but it’s not clear-cut. Lately I’ve wondered if I’ve sent the wrong message these past two years, like I’ve been saying you need to drink to have fun. I haven’t figured out the answer but wish I could steer Rowan to healthier outlets so that every weekend isn’t about the next party.”

Cassandra cackled. “Be serious. Every time moms sponsor some ‘healthy’ teen activity—like paintball or dances or carnivals—it fails. Those things aren’t ‘cool’ enough. At this point, the genie is out of the bottle, so the best we can do is supervise the party scene.”

If Cassandra’s home had been ground zero for a catastrophic event and her daughter arrested, she wouldn’t have been so cocksure.

For weeks I’d been combing through my past and my mistakes. While I accepted some responsibility for Carter’s injuries, I wasn’t wholly responsible, nor was I the worst parent on the planet, despite what Dirk might want me to believe. I wouldn’t keep beating myself up for not being perfect. “All I know is that it backfired for me.”

“Well, yeah. It’s pretty terrible about Carter Phillips.” She said the right words, but they lacked real feeling. Carter Phillips might as well have been some Joe Blow from another town. Who knew, though? If our roles were reversed and some kid I didn’t know well had gotten hurt at someone else’s party, I might’ve still had her attitude. “But I also heard you might