“I know,” Joan said. “But trust me. It’s worth it.”

Vanessa kept her eyes on the road. “Donna and Hank are fucking, right?”

Joan’s shoulders came up to her ears. “I think they are sleeping together, yes. But I don’t care for that word.”

Vanessa laughed. “You’re a little bit of a prude.”

“No, I’m not,” Joan said, in a tone that she knew undercut her point.

“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” Vanessa asked.

Joan tried to think of something, but her mind was blank. “I mean, when I was six years old, I stole a pack of cards from the five-and-dime.” She could already tell it was a dud. “Forget that one—I ended up returning them anyway.”

Vanessa smiled. “Okay, you can try again.”

“I let kids in high school cheat off my tests for about two months before I lost my patience and told them all to study on their own.”

“And which is the bad part? Cheating or eventually telling them no?”

Joan laughed. “Cheating! Obviously.”

Vanessa shook her head. “Sorry, try again. I’m asking you to look deep down in the ugly parts of your soul, Jo. Come on, now. What’s the thing you’re the most ashamed of having done?”

“I assume you’re going to answer, too?”

“Of course. I’ll go first if you want. I’ve got loads to choose from.”

“No, no, I’ll think of something.”

Joan was not sure why she was so willing. “Oh,” she said finally.

“You got it?”

“I…yes. I have the thing I regret the most,” Joan said. “I’m not sure how terrible you’ll find it. But I do.”

“I’m ready.”

“When my sister was seventeen, I was home from college, and I heard her sneak out her window to go see some boy. I woke up my parents and told them. They pulled her back in the house and she was grounded for months.”

“Why’d you do that?”

“She’d gotten pregnant the year before. She’d miscarried early, before she’d even figured out she was pregnant. She never told our parents. I was worried it would happen again, and I didn’t know what else to do.”

Vanessa thought this over. “There were better ways to go about it, maybe. But I don’t know…”

“You didn’t let me finish.”

“Oh, well then, by all means…”

“When my sister came to my room the next morning complaining about being grounded, I pretended I knew nothing about it. I told her Dad must have heard her climbing out the window.”

Vanessa raised her eyebrow and bit her lip. “Why not tell the truth?”