Lili’s face brightened. “Oh, are you in the house with Polly?” She looked over at Laura and grinned.

“Yes!” Laura tried to smile, waiting for Lili to look back at the road. “You know Polly, of course, Clare said so.”

“The bookstore is pretty essential to the neighborhood, and Polly’s pretty essential to the bookstore. Everyone knows Polly.” Lili navigated the streets deftly, but drove fast and changed lanes in a darting, non-indicating fashion. Laura tried to ignore it and focus on Lili’s face. She was quite a bit older than Laura and slightly round-faced with pregnancy, but there was something warm and youthful about her that Laura found appealing. Lili’s long, dark hair was piled on top of her head and secured with one of those grabby clip things, but several large chunks were coming undone at the back, and there was a general messiness about her that was disarming.

“How long have you been at the house?” Lili asked, trying to get comfortable behind the wheel, wriggling a bit and sighing frequently. Pregnancy never looked supercomfortable to Laura; it looked adorable on the covers of magazines and in movies, but up close it seemed like several servings of pain in the ass.

“Not long.” Laura explained about the accident, about moving to Los Angeles, about the fire, about grad school. She thought she breezed through all of it with equal emphasis, but Lili shot her a look and said, with startling bluntness, “My husband died in a car accident. I was a wreck for months afterward, couldn’t even sit in a car without freaking out a bit. Have you found it hard?”

Laura’s mouth dropped open. How was this woman saying all this to a total stranger? She felt the blood rushing to her face.

“It’s been . . .” She couldn’t continue, her voice cracking. Jesus, what is wrong with me?

Lili clearly wasn’t thrown by this conversation and had more pressing concerns. She said, “I’m sorry, but I really need to pee. Can we stop at this Starbucks?”

Laura nodded. “Sure.” She had her voice back, even if she still wasn’t certain how to answer Lili’s question. How do you say, Yeah, it’s been really hard, and—funny you should ask—I’m starting to think I’m losing my mind, thanks for asking?

“Thanks.” Lili pulled into a parking spot outside the coffee place and unbuckled her seat belt with relief. “I’d forgotten how much you pee when you’re pregnant. It’s not a plus.”

“When’s the baby due?”

“September.” Lili was already out of the car and hopping a little from foot to foot. “Which is about six years from tomorrow.”

“Are your kids excited?” Laura got out of the car and followed Lili through the swinging doors.