Lydia sighed. “I don’t want to keep talking about this,” she said.

“Well, me neither.”

Joan thought of Vanessa then, still talking to Steve. She wondered if Vanessa would agree with her. And whether she would see that Joan wasn’t being a peacemaker now.

“All right, let’s dust it off,” Donna said. “We all agree on the root problem here. We just don’t know how to solve it.”

“There is no one way to solve it,” Joan said.

Lydia nodded. “No, you’re right about that.”

“But me fighting with you certainly isn’t it,” Joan admitted.

“Yeah,” Lydia said.

“I’m so annoyed,” Joan said.

“At me?” Lydia asked, with such a childlike vulnerability that it softened Joan’s heart.

“No, at them. It’s their fault we are fighting at all. I am actually mad at them, but instead I’m blaming you.”

“Well, as you know,” Lydia said, smiling, “women can be very irrational.”

Joan laughed, despite herself.

“Lydia Danes, as I live and breathe,” Donna said. “Did you just make a good joke?”

“I can be funny, you know.”

“No,” Donna said. “Nobody knew that.”

—

After dinner, Kris waved Joan over to one of the tents and showed her that Frances had fallen asleep with Julie in Julie’s sleeping bag. They were still in their day clothes, covered in dirt. Frances’s hair was in knots, chocolate on her cheeks.

Joan watched Frances snore with her mouth open, her little hand holding Julie’s as they slept. It passed through her mind that she wasn’t sure how often Frances got to see her friends outside of school.

“Do you want me to carry her over to your tent?” a voice said softly, from behind her.

Joan turned to see Griff.

“They’re okay,” Kris said. “Let her sleep. Julie does this all the time with her cousin Linda. She thinks she’s being sneaky, but it’s the only time she puts herself to bed.”

Joan laughed. “Okay, you sure? You want to come get me in the morning when she wakes up?”

“They’ll be fine,” Kris said.

Griff nodded toward the lakefront, and Joan followed him. The night air was warm, but there was an easy breeze. The sky was clear, the tops of Cygnus and Aquila straight ahead of them, behind the trees.

In the distance, Joan watched Vanessa, on the edge of the dock, having a beer with Steve. Joan felt like a moth that knew what a flame could do to it.

When Joan turned away from the sight of Vanessa, she saw Griff watching her.

He was quiet until they were farther away from the group.

“I wanted to tell you that it’s okay. I’m good, you don’t need to give me space anymore,” Griff said.

“Are you sure?” Joan asked. “I’ll do anything you need.”

Griff nodded, appreciatively. “Have you ever been in love?” he asked.