Page 90 of Want to Know a Secret?

Meanwhile, I’ve gotten to know our new neighbors a little better. Sean and Maria Cooper. And they have a lovely son named Owen. Owen is actually lovely, not fake lovely like Bobby.

But Maria is the one I get very close to. She’s everything I thought April was when I first moved in. She has this great infectious smile with deep dimples. She can’t bake like April does, but she’s a nice person. I feel like Maria and I are becoming friends in the same way April and I used to be. Before I knew what April was really like.

One Sunday in October, Maria and I are sitting together in her kitchen, having some wine I brought over while the boys play upstairs. I love how close Leo and Owen have gotten. And when they’re playing together, I don’t have to worry that Owen is going to give my son a black eye or steal his favorite toy. Even Tristan has gotten in on the fun, even though he’s two years older.

“This is so nice,” Maria comments as she swirls the wine around in her glass. “You… you’re not the way I thought you were when I first met you.”

I know the impression I give when I first meet people. I don’t have April’s warm smile. “Really? How did you think I was?”

“I don’t know. That email you sent about not allowing phones at the PTA meetings was pretty intense.”

That might be true. I wouldn’t have to do it if not for all those meetings where three-quarters of the women in the room were too busy talking or texting to listen to anything I had to say. It’s so incredibly rude.

“Also…” She giggles. “Who picks James Joyce for a book club?”

I laugh along with her. “Hey, I love Joyce. It gives me an excuse to read it. I’m always hoping maybe we’ll have a discussion about it. But April always makes sure to turn the conversation around.”

Maria traces a line along the rim of her wine glass with her finger. “You don’t like April, do you?”

At that moment, I want to tell her everything. I want to tell her how evil April is. I want to confess about my secret burner phone, and how I’ve been using it to torment her. But can I trust Maria? After all, I thought I could trust April and look at what happened. So I simply shrug. “She’s okay.”

“You know, she thinks you’re her best friend.”

“She doesn’t really think that.”

Sean has been doing some work out in the backyard and he comes into the living room with his fingers still slightly embedded with dirt. “Hey,” he says. “I’m going to get the grill going in the backyard. Julie, you staying for dinner?”

“Um…” I glance at the stairs. Leo and Tristan will want to stay for sure.

He holds up his hands and grins at me. “Don’t worry, I swear I’ll wash my hands before I get started.”

Sean and I got off to a bit of a rocky start. He was pissed off about some notes I left on their door about how they were parking their car incorrectly. But I explained to him that the parking rules were there for a reason. Two years ago, a fire truck couldn’t get through our narrow street because of the way people were parked. I’m not going to be responsible for somebody dying. So I organized the rules about how to park the cars, and we haven’t had any issues since.

Sean understood after I explained it to him. Now we’re good friends. Although he’s not going to be happy when I send him the rules about dogs. After one of our neighbors kept half the block awake with his dog barking all night for months on end, I’ve done what I can to keep that situation from happening again.

I return his smile. “Okay, sure.”

“And Keith?” Maria asks.

I wince. “No, just me. Keith won’t be joining us.”

I don’t have to ask my husband to know he’ll be staying late at work. And even if he weren’t, he wouldn’t want to have dinner with the Coopers. They aren’t his kind of people.

“Now, Julie,” Sean says, “before I get started, you gotta tell me if there are any specific block related grill rules that I need to know. Like do I have to get you to individually approve every piece of meat I use…?”

He’s still grinning at me though. Teasing me. Sean is a good guy. You can see it all over his face and in everything he does. And he loves his family.

As promised, Sean washes his hands and then goes out to the backyard to get started on the food. Soon enough, the tantalizing smell of ground meat wafts into the house. Keith was never interested in grilling.

“Do you guys grill a lot?” I ask Maria.

“Constantly.” Maria rolls her eyes. “I think there might be pure ground beef flowing through my veins right now. But Sean loves it. And so does Owen. If your boys weren’t here, they’d be grilling together.”

“He’s so great with Owen,” I say. “I’m surprised you don’t have six or seven children.”

“Yeah.” Maria takes a sip of wine. “The truth is, I can’t have children. I had these horrible fibroids and one of them ruptured. They had to do a hysterectomy to save my life.”

I cover my mouth. “Oh my God, I’m sorry. That was after Owen was born?”