He pointed his chin to the crib, offering to sneak the baby into it. She shook her head, and he was glad. Didn’t matter if this moment wouldn’t stretch to his liking. However short-lived, the bounty on his head—all those robbed hours and dollars due—was forgiven here, for now. This bounty, in the other sense, was something to revel in. Here was the sum of his efforts—his family and home, his world entire—all right here and within arm’s reach.

The crib was a fresh artifact of their recklessness. After Red Lobster, they’d let the good-times boulder keep rolling. They continued splurging, because they’d earned it. First, they’d forgone the local Walmart and instead driven three towns east to pillage a Target’s baby department. They filled two carts with a wardrobe of onesies, booties, and bibs, to be washed separately with a jug of odorless, infant-safe laundry detergent. A breast pump, milk storage containers, tubs of organic milk-based formulas, and a stockpile of cold-pressed, additive-free produce purees. An on-the-go changing bag made of leather finer than any purse Michelle’d ever owned, each of its suede pockets to be stuffed with ointments and creams, disposable wipes, and a portable changing pad. A plastic bathing tub for the kitchen sink, a soft-bristled hairbrush, and microfiber towels. A bulb syringe, mini–nail clippers, thermometer, and pacifiers. A state-of-the-art stroller, to which they could mount its accompanying and equally sophisticated car seat. A crib worth five times what they’d paid for their own bed. Then Henry’d told the cashier to charge him for and send out a pallet of Huggies in ascending sizes.

Next they’d gone to replace Michelle’s clunker. He’d initially wanted to get her a convertible, but the reality of potential catastrophe changed his mind. Michelle and their daughter would need a tank, maybe an Escalade like the heavy hitter’s back in the city. But after she’d refused to drive anything bigger than their home, they settled on a gently used Saab, which the dealer swore had a frame reinforced by freight train–grade steel to protect Swiss drivers from two-ton reindeer wandering onto fjord-side highways and all, believe him.