“How much longer can I breathe platitudes and reassurance? The only reasons he doesn’t know the whole Wendy story are distance and a job that requires superb concentration. But nobody stays underwater indefinitely.”

“I don’t know about that. Some of those little girls in the pool today had me worried.”

I was glad we were moving to something more positive. The party was living proof that good things could still happen in the midst of turmoil.

I heard tramping on the stairs, and in a moment two little girls in mismatched pajamas were in the kitchen, too.

Mismatched was new and different. Holly and Noelle had been carefully schooled to look pretty and sweet, even when they were asleep. Today both girls were taunting the fashion police.

“Purple polka dots and orange stripes, Holly Jolly! Wow!”

“It’s our birthday. We should be able to wear anything we want,” Holly said, challenge in her eyes.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“Mine match. They both have puppies, see?” Noelle lifted the hem of her cocker spaniel shirt as evidence.

Her pants sported circus lions complete with lion tamer, but this wasn’t the moment for a lecture on animal families. I lifted her to a stool and set hot chocolate in front of her. Hours had passed since the cake, so I was hoping tummies weren’t going to rebel.

When they were finished, I took Noelle upstairs to brush her teeth, while Teo and Holly went outside to pump up TropiSanta, who would be flat by morning. After Noelle put away her toothbrush, I perched on her bed, and she surprised me by plopping into my lap. I wrapped my arms around her. “So what do you think, Mermaid?”

“Holly said today was her party because she was born first.”

“Holly can be so silly.”

“Are you sure it was my party, too?”

“Your friends were there, right? Your name was on the birthday cake. Half the presents were yours.”

She relaxed and grinned, her missing tooth a reminder she was growing fast. “I never had a birthday party like that before.”

Not many children ever would, because Arlie Gracey couldn’t be cloned. But the girls were usually silent about what had gone on in their home before Wendy disappeared, so I probed a bit. “What kind of birthday parties did you have?”

“I don’t think I had one. Maybe once when Daddy was home.”

That was more than I usually learned, but then Holly, the appointed secret keeper, wasn’t in earshot. “What was it like, do you remember?”

“Mommy threw out my presents. She said they were cheap. I told her they were still mine, and she got madder.”

“Well...” I hugged her harder. “Some people get cranky at parties. But not you, right? And we’re going to keep every single present you got today. I promise.”

Noelle hugged me back, then she leaped off my lap and went to sort through her treasure again, which was piled haphazardly on the floor at the end of her bed. I went downstairs to see if niece number two had finished outside.