Page 101 of Not How I Saw That Going

The woman pats my bicep, and I fight the urge to shove her away like I want to.

“You’re so protective of your family. I love it,” she says, then, thankfully leaves.

I turn back to Lyndi, who’s gripping my arm, and Crew, who’s completely oblivious.

“That’s because of the video, isn’t it?” I ask.

She bites her bottom lip and nods.

“Lyndi, we have to do something,” I say gently. I can tell the woman has shaken her.

She pulls her hand away and folds her arms across her chest. “I don’t know what to do,” she says finally.

I don’t want to force her to discuss it, but a stranger just took her picture without her consent. Judging by her reaction to the phone call earlier, it’s not just innocent strangers she’s having a problem with right now. “You should talk to someone about it.”

She nods. “I’ll talk to Maddie.”

“Okay.” I nod. But a pit opens up in the center of my chest. I can help her. I can fix whatever’s wrong if she will just tell me. “Let’s get out of here.” I grab her good hand and hold it tight until her fingers stop shaking.

Lyndi nods. “I’ve never liked carnivals anyway.”

Thirty Five

Lyndi

“Ithoughtyouwerecoming to do my hair and makeup,” I yell into the phone as soon as Maddie picks up.

“Ouch. My head,” Maddie mutters. “I’m on my way. Geez. What’s with you?”

What’s with me is that I’m still on edge after last night. Another person recognized me, took pictures of my son, and to top it all off, Rodney has called four times in the last twenty-four hours. After stress-eating my way through a sleeve of Oreos, I decided I would deal with him tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I will face the demons from my past, but tonight I just want to escape with Ward to the gala and pretend my life is normal. I just want one perfect night.

“And you brought a backup dress in case my fairy godmother doesn’t come through, right?”

“You mean, did I bring a dress in case the crazy lady who helped you home one day was just crazy?”

“She wasn’t crazy,” I say, defending her. She was sweet and familiar. So familiar that I’m positive I’ve met her somewhere before. But I still can’t figure it out and it’s been bugging me since she left my apartment last week.

“If you say so.” Maddie sighs.

“So how was work?” I ask, pulling out the bin of Legos for Crew.

“Well, let’s just say I’ve contemplated murder.”

“Oh boy. What did the devil do now?” I clean off the bathroom counter, waiting for what should be a fairly dramatic story.

“I made my favorite vegan sandwich for lunch today, and guess what he did?”

I don’t make a noise because I know she’ll just tell me.

“He snuck into the break room and replaced my keto bread with store-bought bread! Do you know how awful that is? It’s like eating two pieces of cake for lunch!”

I was right. That was dramatic.

“No, it’s not. Crew eats like four pieces of bread a day. It’s fine.”

“That’s because he’s a four-year-old,” Maddie moans. “He’ll run off anything he eats in a matter of minutes. It will take me a week to erase this damage.”