Page 54 of Want to Know a Secret?

I suck in a breath. This is my chance. This is my opportunity to tell her Bobby’s side of the story. “Look, Julie. I know what Owen has been saying. But Bobby didn’t push Leo. He swears he didn’t.”

Julie just snorts.

“Bobby wouldn’t lie.”

“Oh, wouldn’t he?” Her voice is laced with sarcasm. “Yes, he’s a little angel. We both saw how he almost broke Leo’s nose at soccer.”

“That was an accident!”

“Well, it does seem like a lot of accidents happen when Bobby and Leo are playing, doesn’t it?”

The pie trembles in my hands. This isn’t going how I hoped it would. But I push forward. “Look,” I say, “I think the kid who pushed Leo off the slide was Owen Cooper.”

Her eyes fly open. “Owen? You think that sweet little boy would push Leo?”

“He’s not as sweet as you think. He pushed Bobby off the swing and Bobby had scrapes all over him.” I glance over at the Cooper house. “Owen’s the one who pushed Leo, and then he lied and said Bobby did it.”

Julie is staring at me, and I wonder if I got through to her. Bobby and Leo have been friends forever, and Owen has only been around for a couple of months. She has to believe me over them, right?

But then she shakes her head. “You’re unbelievable, April. You know, I thought you were coming over here to apologize. But instead of owning up to it, you’ve got some bullshit story to take the blame off your son.”

My cheeks burn. “That’s not what I’m doing… It’s the truth, Julie!”

“Yeah, right.” She puts her hand on the door frame. “I don’t want Bobby playing with Leo anymore. Tell your kid to stay the hell away from mine, okay?”

I open my mouth to say something more, but Julie has slammed the door in my face.

Well, it looks like I made things worse. I hate it when Elliot is right.

Chapter 26

For the last two years and change, I’ve always walked Bobby right to the front door when I dropped him off at school. There is a drop-off line by the front entrance, but I always parked and walked him to the door. I always wanted to watch him go into the school, and there was the extra bonus of getting to chat with the other mothers.

But today, when I get to school, I don’t want to get out of my car.

Leo is going back to school today. That means Julie will be there. And even without Julie, it’s been awkward showing up at school since the accident. Everybody seems stiff and uncomfortable when I come over. Like I am the one who pushed poor Leo. It doesn’t help that they all think I brought a bunch of contaminated food to the bake sale.

“I think we’ll do the drop-off line today,” I tell Bobby.

He’s strapped into his booster seat in the back. He doesn’t say anything when I make this suggestion. But he doesn’t say not to do it. So I pull up alongside the school.

“Okay, honey!” I try to keep my voice as chipper as possible. “Have a wonderful day at school. I love you!”

Bobby doesn’t budge.

That’s unusual. Most days, he leaps out of the car and is running for the school, and I’m left racing to keep up. But now he is just sitting there in his booster seat, not making any moves to unbuckle himself.

“Bobby?” I don’t have much time. This is not a parking area, and if I linger too long, other parents will start honking at me. “Time to get out.”

He still doesn’t budge. And now his lower lip is trembling.

Right on cue, somebody honks at me. “Bobby, honey, what’s wrong?”

I hear another honk. Somebody yells something at me, possibly an obscenity.

“Bobby?”

He’s just sitting there. His Star Wars backpack is on his left side, stuffed with God knows what. We need to go through that backpack tonight. Last time, I found the rocks inside. Like five legit rocks. But that’s the least of our problems right now.