Page 58 of The Charade

He got a strange look on his face when he mentioned his mother, and I was reminded of what he'd said about how she'd left him at a childcare center when he was little and never returned.

He swallowed and resumed looking at the yearbook as if searching for a distraction. Then he pointed to a photo and said, "Looks like my dad played Romeo."

"He did?" My jaw dropped at the coincidence. Sure enough, a guy with light hair who looked like a younger version of his dad was in a photo with my mom, doing the dramatic double suicide scene at the end. And while I didn't have a thing for older guys, Mr. Hastings had actually been pretty cute in high school.

But I guess that shouldn't surprise me since his son was gorgeous himself.

It made me wonder if my mom ever had a crush on Carter's dad growing up.

"Did you know your dad played Romeo in the school play?" I asked Carter.

He shook his head. "I knew he did a lot of different things in high school—sports, clubs, and whatever interested him. But he never specifically mentioned being in a play."

"Apparently, neither of our parents considered starring in the school's play worth bragging about to their kids."

"I guess not," he said. "But that must be where Nash got his flair for the dramatic from."

"And Elyse from my mom."

It looked like he was going to say something about my acting skills too, but when he glanced over at Scarlett and Hunter who were immersed in yearbooks of their own, he seemed to think better of it. He probably didn't want to clue them in to the fact that everything they'd been seeing from us this week had been an act.

"Do you think this play was how our parents became friends?" I asked Carter, referencing back to what his dad had said the day before about him and my mom going way back.

"Probably." Carter shrugged.

I gave the yearbook back to Elyse and continued searching through the one I'd been working on. When I turned to a page with the title of Sweethearts Ball at the top, I saw a photo of Carter's dad wearing the kind of sash girls wore in beauty pageants, with the words “Most Preferred” in thick black lettering across his chest.

"This must have been from that story you told me, what Mack's dad likes to tease your dad about."

Carter leaned closer to look at the photo I was pointing to, his shoulder pressing against mine. "Yeah, that's my dad." But then he seemed to notice something else, because he chuckled and pointed to another guy in the photo. "And that's Mack's dad." He shook his head and smiled. "Looks like he took second place. Maybe that's why he always brings that story up. Because he's jealous he didn't win."

The man in the photo looked nothing like what I'd been imagining Mack's dad to look like.

Since Mack was black, I'd assumed his dad must be black, too. The photo was black and white, so it didn't show the exact skin tone, but it was obvious that his skin was closer to Mr. Hastings's coloring than Mack's. But he did have the height that Mack had. Mr. Hastings was probably close to Carter's height, but in this photo, Mack's dad stood a few inches taller than his friend.

"Mack's mom was originally from South Africa," Carter said, seeming to notice that I was trying to figure out how everything worked. "Or at least I think her family is from South Africa. I think she was born in the U.S. And I'm pretty sure she was in the same grade as my dad and Dr. Aarden."

"That's cool," I said.

I was about to turn the page when my eyes caught on a photo at the bottom with the caption that read,Miriam Cohen and Joel Hastings dance the night away.

What the—?

I took a second look at the photo. Carter's dad wore the "Most Preferred" sash in the photo and my mom wore a sleeveless dress that while it was probably the height of fashion twenty something years ago, she probably wouldn't be caught dead wearing today now that she was a fashion icon. But what I noticed most was the way they were dancing. It wasn't the awkward, rigid pose where you could fit five Bibles in between their bodies and still have room. No, they were practically hugging and lookedverycontent to be in each other's arms.

I blinked my eyes, not used to seeing my mom being romantic with a guy—for as long as I could remember, she'd never really dated anyone. She'd always claimed she was too busy and that she didn't want her attention taken from raising Elyse and me.

But the way she was resting her head against Mr. Hastings's chest, and the way his chin rested on top of her head with his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, I couldn't help but think they’d been more than the simple "friends" that Mr. Hastings had called them yesterday.

"Um, guys?" I said, looking to my left and then to my right to make sure I had Carter and Elyse's attention.

They looked up from their yearbooks. Scarlett and Hunter looked up as well. With their eyes on me, I pointed to the incriminating photo and said, "So, um…I'm pretty sure our mom and Carter’s dad dated back when they were in high school."

22

Ava

We searchedthe rest of the yearbooks from the years that our parents were at the academy, and by the time we were done, Elyse and I figured out that Mack's mom and our mom had been best friends all four years at the academy. Our mom and Carter's dad didn’t show up in any photos together until the playRomeo and Juliet. And then after that play, which had happened during their junior year, photos of Mom and Carter's dad popped up here and there, and in most of them they stood close enough that I figured it was safe to assume that they had indeed dated—or at the very least had been very close friends.

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