“Mom?” she asked as if she wasn’t sure whether aliens had taken over her body. Clutching her robe closed at the neck, she even looked up and down the street for the UFO.

“Of course it’s me. Can I come in, darling?” Diana asked, motioning.

“Oh. Now I know why you’re here. You want to talk about Dad, don’t you?” Lily said, clicking her tongue as she pulled open the door and let Diana pass. “Isn’t it absolutely gross? I have no idea what’s gotten into him.”

“Actually, I don’t want to talk about him at all,” she said, dropping a little care package from Addict’s summer lineup on the foyer table. Lily lived for her mom’s cosmetics. She’d already mailed the same one out to Beatrice in Japan—in the interest of fairness.

She looked around the large foyer, Better Homes and Gardens-perfect as usual. It was like her daughter had staged it for a sale—right down to the scent of home-baked cookies wafting through the air.

Not that it would look that way for much longer. She patted her Lily’s still-flat stomach. “How are you?”

She gripped her stomach. “You know, everyone is always touching my stomach now! It’s like I’m not a person. I’m a womb. The peanut’s fine. The doctor said everything’s normal, so I don’t have to go back for another month. It’s the size of a pea. I have to get pre-natal vitamins. I keep forgetting to stop by the Rite Aid and—”

Diana shook her head. “That’s why I asked how you were doing.”

Lily shrugged. “Oh, fine. Never better. I was just getting ready to meet a client. The market’s booming. I have six showings today. You know that big Victorian on Elm that we thought would never sell? The one with the major HVAC issues? I think I have a potential buyer.”

Diana shot her a disapproving that’s still not what I asked look.

Lily’s smile faded, and she yawned. “Okay. Exhausted. And bloated as heck. I feel so funky all the time like my body’s been invaded by an alien. You know, I had a bloody nose at the office yesterday that wouldn’t stop? It was like a crime scene.”

“You? A bloody nose? That’s odd. Bea was always the one with the bloody noses.”

“I know, right? I’ve never had anything like that before, but the doctor said all kinds of weird things will be happening to my body now. The other day, I had a weird kink in my back, and I couldn’t straighten up for three hours. How did you ever deal with your job and pregnancy? Tell me it gets easier.”

Diana sat down at the kitchen nook overlooking the large backyard with cherry trees and a stone patio. It was the perfect family house just like Diana’s home had been, right down to the white picket fence. “It does. Your first trimester is always the most exhausting. But after a while you get into that pregnancy glow, and you feel like you can tackle anything. You should probably take it easy now if that’s what your body’s telling you. You’re growing a little human.”