Read Online A Field Guide to Deception by Jill Malone - Free Book Online Page B

talking, Simon found the frozen bags draped all over her to be quite amusing. He ran Toby up her bare leg, and down again.
    When Claire and Bailey ran up, Liv said, “I must have hit my head even harder than I thought.”
    â€œWhat were you doing on a ladder?” Claire demanded.
    â€œA bee hive. I was trying to dislodge it with a broom handle.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you use a hose to blast it loose?” Bailey asked. For a moment, they all looked at her, thrown by her unsuspected resourcefulness.
    â€œI didn’t think of it,” Liv said.
    â€œThat sentence could be shorter,” Claire said. “You didn’t think.”
    â€œYour appointment was with Bailey?” Liv asked.

    Claire ignored this, said to Bailey: “So you’ll stay with Simon?”
    â€œSure. Hey, kid, you’ll love this.” Simon hovered over her purse, inspecting each item Bailey removed. “Ever played with nail polish?”
    During the distraction, Claire helped Liv to the car. On the drive to the house, Claire had considered letting Bailey take Liv to urgent care; in many ways, that arrangement would have made more sense, but Claire knew she had to control the information, the back story, about her connection to Bailey. She drove too fast. Angry, unaccountably angry: Liv’s fall from the ladder felt like a ruse to smoke out Claire’s deception.
    â€œYour appointment was with Bailey?” Liv asked again.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œHow did that happen—you two meeting?”
    â€œLast week at the Mercury Café.”
    Liv adjusted the clown fish on her head, and turned to stare out the window. They were both angry now. At Claire’s speed, the drive to the hospital took six minutes rather than fifteen.

    Bailey went through the cupboards systematically, taking down various items as they appealed to her. She handed each selection to Simon and he made a pile on the counter.
    â€œYour mommy’s a good shopper,” Bailey told him as she rooted through the refrigerator. She let him wash all the vegetables, and eat anything he wanted. “You like couscous?”
    They had painted his fingernails and his toenails. He’d stayed perfectly still for her. She was blond like Cinderella, Simon thought. Afterwards, he’d shown her his trains and they had walked to the river. Then he had shown her his airplane, and Bailey had flown it while Simon ran underneath.
    She chopped so rapidly he was mesmerized, as though this were a card trick instead of vegetables. “OK, I need a large pan and a small one. Right, good. We’re going to bake the fish. Do you like fish? I can do quesadillas for you as well.”

    She talked a lot. Sometimes just to say what she was doing, and sometimes to ask questions, but rarely stopping either way. She showed him how to set the table after the fish went in the oven. They set for four, reverently. She hadn’t asked about Liv falling from the ladder, but she had taken the ladder down and rested it in the grass on the side of the house.
    She put many different foods on his plate, in small portions. The colors bright and the smells complex, Simon held his fork and watched her eat. He smelled everything before he tasted it; then bolted his food like a stray cat.

    At midnight, Claire’s car cruised down the gravel road with Liv—her mouth opened, head bent—asleep in the passenger’s seat. Inside the house, the kitchen light glowed. Claire helped Liv to her camper, and laid her, fully clothed, on the bed before covering her with a sleeping bag.
    In the house, Bailey had fallen asleep on the couch, left a note asking not to be woken since she had to be to work at 4 a.m. Claire crept through the house, peeked in at Simon, slipped off her clothes before sliding into bed. Asleep and dreamless while overhead the fan hummed.

    Liv woke with the headache still very much in residence. She took her time about sitting up,