One of Us Is Back (One of Us Is Lying, #3)

by Karen M. McManus

My girl’s back in town for the next two months, so I guess I am, in fact, living the dream.

I don’t understand how you can look at someone who’s obviously hurting and think, You know what this person needs? More time in their own head.

Then the music fades as Cooper puts down the weights, reaches for a towel, and turns toward the camera. “Nothing gets me fired up like fitness,” he says. There’s a moment of stunned silence in the room, because that was easily the most wooden line that anyone’s ever delivered. Cooper sounded like a robot programmed for English by someone who’s never actually heard it spoken. But then we erupt into even louder cheers, because Cooper still rules and that was weirdly iconic. “Oscar! Oscar!” Luis yells.

“He’s warmed by the flame of love, which even the river beside Marshall’s Peak couldn’t extinguish,” Maeve says dramatically.

It doesn’t matter how many times she smiles at me like that; I still forget how to breathe for at least a few seconds.

She waits a few beats before adding, “You know what I always say, right?” “Don’t trust coincidences?” I ask. “Not that.” “Everyone gives themselves away online eventually?” “Wow, you’ve really been paying attention,” Maeve says, sounding gratified. “But no.” Her voice drops to a low whisper. “It’s always the husband.” I lift my head so I can stare at her. “You’ve literally never said that.”

Advertising’s a cutthroat business, right?”