quickly, I’m happy to get you on the next flight out of Newark. You’ll beat us there, and it will be much more comfortable than sitting in the back seat with my nine-year-old.”
“Nina, come on. I’m already here. I’m not going to jump you in the car in front of Jane and Olivia. Much as I might like to, anyway.”
“Matthew!”
He chuckled. It was infuriating.
“Are we walking a shady line here?” he asked. “Maybe, yeah. But I’m not breaking any laws sitting in a car, Nina. It’s not my fault we run in the same social circles. Now, can I please sit in the back of your”—he balked as he turned to the car—“holy shit, is that a Volvo?”
I rolled my eyes. Good lord, not this again. At this rate, we’d never get out of the city.
“Get in,” I said. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“Besides, doll,” Matthew added with another cheeky grin. “Who’s going to know? Outside this city, we’re free.”
He closed the trunk and sauntered around the car to get into the passenger side. I stood in the back for a moment before I got in too, thinking to myself how I wished those words could be true.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have worried. The four-hour drive north was quiet, mostly filled with Jane and Matthew’s chatter, especially after we stopped midway and I traded seats with Matthew, allowing him to chat with Jane while she drove, since she knew the way to her friends’ house. Olivia kept herself firmly shoved in the corner, too well trained at this point to do something so untoward as lean on her mother’s shoulder the few times she grew sleepy. It was my fault, of course. How could she know how to snuggle with anyone when I had been teaching her for so long to be purely independent?
“I’m staying right by Fenway,” Matthew said as we neared the city. “You can just drop me at one of the green line stops near Sky and Brandon’s. I’ll meet him at the game tomorrow.”
Jane, however, just gave Matthew one of her trademark withering stares. “I’m sorry, have you met our friends? Do you think they would be all right with that? Just keep your ass in your seat, bucko. You’re at least coming home for dinner.”
Matthew turned toward me and raised his shoulders, as if to say I tried, doll. I sighed and tried again.
“Really,” I said as Jane turned off the main freeway just west of Boston. “Are you sure it won’t be strange, Livy and me staying with your friends? We really can get a hotel for the weekend.”
Jane shook her head vigorously. “Oh, no, they love to host. Not huge parties or anything, so don’t worry. But close friends and family? The more the merrier. This time of year, they usually have Skylar’s half brother and sister with them too, plus their own kids, so Liv will have some playmates too.”
I blinked. While I was sure that Olivia had friends at school—she had mentioned a few—I had never really seen her play with other children casually at home. I realized with a pang of guilt I had no idea what that would look like for her.
“Hmm,” I said. “I don’t know. I feel bad about imposing on people I’ve never met.”
Jane snorted. “Nina, I hate to break it to you, but you’re not getting out of this either. Skylar is like a sister to me and Eric, and we asked her to help you get settled. I’m afraid you’re stuck with her now, because my best friend is equal parts stubborn and loyal.”
Matthew chuckled. “That’s putting it lightly.”
Catching my skeptical gaze in the rearview mirror, Jane just grinned. “Relax, Nina,” she said as she turned onto a familiar offramp that suddenly made me feel eighteen again. “Once you’re friends with the Sterlings, it’s for life. There is no safer place in Boston for you or Liv. I promise.”
I straightened at the word “safer.” Why would she think I needed that in particular? Why didn’t I want to admit it?
I ignored the glances Matthew gave me over his shoulder too. The last thing we needed was for his odd radar about my safety to go up again.
“Where are we, Mama?” Olivia piped up, saving everyone from the strange awkwardness that had almost descended.
Matthew turned fully around in his seat to flash his bright grin at Olivia. “Hey, kiddo, you’re awake. This is Brookline.”
Olivia eyed him right back with an iciness I regretfully recognized as