Lie in Plain Sight Read Online Free Page A

asked, looking at the clock over the counter. Trish had been gone for over an hour, and the delivery was only on the other side of town. Maeve wondered where she was and, again, if this precipitous hire had been a mistake, a few days into it.
    â€œCal.”
    â€œCal Callahan?” Maeve asked. The hair on the back of her neck prickled at the thought that the gossip she so eagerly awaited was about her and her ex.
    â€œOne and only. Your ex-husband. The father of your children. Cad-about-town Cal Callahan.”
    â€œWhat about him?” Maeve asked. They had been careful. He’d had every reason to be at her house that night. He had walked in without hiding and left the same way. There was no way that anyone could know that they had had a tryst, if that’s even what you called sleeping with your ex-husband, the one who had run away from you only to come running back like a dog that finds his home after being lost for years.
    â€œAffair.”
    Maeve was nothing if not a good liar with a great poker face. Those two things had served her well. “Really? Any idea who it might be?”
    Jo narrowed her eyes, studying Maeve’s face. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? I thought you’d be thrilled to hear this news, or at least disgusted. One or the other.”
    Maeve shrugged. “He’s a big boy. He can do what he wants. And I don’t really care.” She shrugged again for good measure. Clearly she was losing her touch, not having the proper reaction to the situation.
    â€œThat’s it? ‘He’s a big boy’?” Jo narrowed her eyes. “What gives?”
    â€œNothing gives. I don’t care.”
    â€œYou don’t care.”
    â€œNope.”
    â€œNot even a little schadenfreude? Some satisfaction in the fact that he’s cheating on Miss Gorgeous? The Brazilian knockout?”
    Maeve started to sweat. She didn’t want to have this conversation. Jo needed to drop it.
    It took her a few seconds, but Jo eventually figured it out, standing and knocking over her bar stool, the metal clanging when it hit the floor and jarring the baby awake. “ J’accuse! ” Jo said, pointing her finger at Maeve, a smile spreading across her face. “It’s you.” Jo leaned over and picked up the chair, replacing it gently in front of the table while glancing over at the baby, who was asleep again. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
    â€œNo,” Maeve said. “I will.” And I think I’m okay with that, she thought.
    â€œYou are the worst liar,” Jo said.
    No, I’m not, Maeve thought. If you knew some of the things I’ve done and lied about, we wouldn’t be friends.
    Through the small window in the door that separated the kitchen from the front of the store, Maeve saw Trish standing by the door, then turning quickly to talk to Evelyn when she saw her boss. Maeve stood. “Listen, it was one time. It was a mistake.” She held one finger up, letting Trish know she’d be right in. “I’d hardly call it an affair.”
    â€œYou don’t seem terribly guilty about this.”
    â€œI’m not,” Maeve said, feeling the same way she had when it was over: satisfied. Content. A little reckless.
    Happy? The score had been settled, one that had remained one-sided since Gabriela had upended her life all those years ago.
    â€œWe’re not done,” Jo said, following her into the kitchen.
    Maeve turned. “Yes. We are.”
    Trish was peeling off a wad of bills and counting them. “A hundred and sixty, right, Maeve?” she asked, putting the money in a stack beside a mixing bowl. “Artun says that the banana bread was dry last week.”
    â€œEveryone’s a critic,” Jo said. “And a word to the wise, Trish: Try to soften the blow before you deliver news like that. This one here,” she said, jerking a thumb in Maeve’s direction,