Bob looked across the table at Laura, who was looking back at him with a mounting sense of panic. There was going to be a scene, she could feel it. He gave her one of his fleeting winks, and she flickered a smile. They would keep their heads down and the storm would pass over them. At least they weren’t talking about her any longer.

“You know,” said Nick conversationally, “Laura could have been anything she wanted to be.”

And we’re back to me again, thought Laura. Fantastic.

Maggie looked at Laura and then at Nick. “Well, isn’t she being what she wants to be?”

“So she says”—Nick shrugged—“but she has a truly first-rate mind, she had offers from Caltech, MIT, Cornell, Stanford . . .”

Bob frowned. “Where did you go to school?”

“Columbia,” said Laura quietly. “My parents are professors, it was free, why would I go anywhere else?” She looked at Nick. “Nobody wants to discuss this.”

“But you could have been a scientist,” said Nick incredulously.

Laura sighed. “I didn’t want to spend my life in a lab, Nick, you know that.”

“She has so much energy,” said Maggie. “She would be totally bored sitting inside all day.”

“Seriously,” chimed in Anna. “Have you seen how much she runs every day? Have you seen her swim?”

Nick shrugged. “She could still do all that physical stuff, but she could have contributed to the world.”

“I do contribute . . .” said Laura, but they were still discussing her.

Nick was a tiny bit drunk. “Yes, but you could have done your little physiotherapy thingy at Columbia, you didn’t need to move all the way to the other side of the country. Maybe you thought the standards would be lower on the West Coast?”

“I bet it’s super challenging,” said Anna staunchly. “Not everyone likes thinking all day.”

“I think—” asserted Laura, but Madeleine interrupted her.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be like her parents.” Madeleine was proud of this insight, even though she never could have applied it to herself. “She came across the country for a reason, right?” She raised her eyebrow artistically at Nick. “Maybe she came here to get away from you?” She lowered her lashes. “Although why anyone would do that, I don’t know . . .”

Asher frowned. “People change their minds, maybe she felt like a change.”

Laura tried again. “I wanted . . .”

“All I’m saying,” said Nick, finishing his glass of wine with a flourish and pouring himself another, “is that she’s wasting her brain.” He held up his palms. “But that’s the thing with Laura, she’s impulsive first and stubborn second. She leaps into things, and then refuses to change her mind.”

Bob looked across the table at Laura and could see how much she wasn’t enjoying this.

“So,” he said to Nick, “you were explaining the difference between . . .”