Edith’s two brothers were there, and some of their kids from assorted girlfriends and ex-wives. Alice hadn’t seen any of them since they’d moved out of Biddeford to Kennewick. “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” Edith had said. Alice actually liked her uncle Claude, even though he was supposedly the worse of the two Moss brothers; he rarely worked, and drank all day. But he was always in a good mood, and when Alice was a little kid, he’d give her packs of fruit-flavored chewing gum. Her uncle Theo, who never gave her anything, was a construction foreman with a bad back who was now on disability. In the receiving line, he said to Alice, “Guess you get all that Saltonstall money, now, eh?”

“I guess,” Alice said, resolving to never see any of her Biddeford relatives again.

A few of Jake’s friends from the bank came but no family. Gina came, of course, and so did Justin, and a few other kids from high school that Alice barely knew. Justin couldn’t take his eyes off Alice during the brief, terrible reception in the church’s basement. She wondered if he was trying to figure out if her “boyfriend” was there. Would he know she’d been lying? She didn’t particularly care one way or another. She hadn’t thought she’d ever see him again after the party at his house, and she was pretty sure that now she’d never see him again after her mother’s funeral.

Everyone kept asking Alice what her plans were. Was she going away to college? Would she come back to Biddeford? She told them she didn’t know yet, but she did know. She wanted to keep living with Jake. She’d take classes at MCC, just for something to do, but now she had Jake all to herself. She pictured them trying new restaurants up and down the coast, maybe even traveling together.

After the reception, Jake drove Alice back along Route 1 from Biddeford and through Kennebunkport. “I don’t want to go back home quite yet,” he said.

“I don’t, either.”

They went to the Brasserie for an early supper. Alice was wearing a Laura Ashley dress and more makeup than she usually wore. Jake ordered a dinner for both of them and a bottle of wine. The waitress brought the bottle and two glasses and never asked Alice for ID. Alice hadn’t touched any of the deviled ham sandwiches or potato salad they’d served at the church, and she was starving. She ate all the bread herself, soaking it in the garlic butter from the escargot. She tried her steak rare, the way Jake ordered his, instead of medium, the way she usually got it, and it tasted better, much better, especially if you didn’t think about the pool of bright red juice on the plate.