“Hearing you and Nicole fall out and then seeing you fix it again. I’ve always thought you two had, like, the perfect, most amazing friendship. I didn’t imagine that you ever exchanged an angry word. And then you did, but it was okay. And seeing that gave me courage to speak to Cally. I’m going to do that.”

“Good.” Milly leaned against the car door to close it, her arms full. She was relieved that Zoe didn’t seem scarred by witnessing a surfeit of maternal emotion. And who would have thought that her problems with Nicole would have turned into a teachable moment? Usually she tried to smooth or sanitize everything, but maybe she needed to be a little more open. After all, her job as a mother was to prepare Zoe for a real version of life, not a polished version. “I hope she’s receptive and that the conversation isn’t too stressful. If you want to talk through how to approach it, I’m here.” She took a step toward the house, but Zoe stopped her.

“Talking of not hiding things—”

“Mm?” Milly paused, her maternal radar on full alert.

“I kind of understood why it was hard for Nicole to tell you.

About Dad, I mean—” Zoe stumbled over the words “—because it’s not an easy thing, is it? Talking about something like that. When you overhear something you shouldn’t. It’s like holding something hot that is scalding you, and the last thing you want to do is hand it over and scald someone else.”

Milly stayed still, waiting.

This was how it was with teenagers, she was discovering. You could sit them down and encourage them to talk and they gave away frustratingly little, but then you were standing in the blazing sunshine clutching a bag of groceries with a packet of chocolate biscuits melting in your hand and suddenly you knew that this conversation about not much was about something very important.

“Have you been in that position, sweetheart?”

Zoe gave her a desperate look. “I overheard Dad talking.” The words fell out of her as if they’d been held inside for too long. “It was at home one night. When we were still in our old house. I came down for a glass of water. He didn’t know I was there.” She broke off. “I don’t even know if I should be telling you this.”

They were standing in full sunshine.

Milly was sweltering. Her clothes were sticking to her. The chocolate biscuits were turning liquid.

“You can tell me anything, honey. Anything at all.”