“In politics,” she expanded, “one side always tries to say why they’re the best and the other side is the worst.” God, that sounded stupid—yet all too true. “But in the end, we’re all trying to do our best. We all want what’s best for everybody.” That was stupid too—and not true.

“But you don’t say he’s the worst,” Taylor pointed out.

“Hon… is someone saying bad things about me? I mean, besides putting out those silly signs? Those are just signs.”

Harley said, “Is someone saying bad things to you, Taylor Kick, or to you, Dylan Kick, about your mommy? That’s what Mommy means.”

She ground her teeth because Dylan had also looked down at his waffle and both twins had gone silent. In other words, yes. She could feel Harley wanting to share a look, but she kept her eyes fixed upon the boys. She had no idea exactly what they were hearing, or how they would process the kind of rumors that were out there. She needed Opie, who excelled at age-seven psychology and could reliably parse out what the twins were thinking. If the boys were getting bothered, she had to push back. She wasn’t sure where Oppo was leading her, but if Rickreiner’s campaign was hurting her kids, then bring it on.

“So anyway,” she groped, “two wrongs don’t make a right. We all know that. But for sure, it’s OK to be upset when you feel hurt by someone. It’s OK that Taylor got angry. It’s just not OK how he showed he was angry. And now he isn’t quite ready to be sorry for his actions. Am I right, Taylor?”

Her little tough guy frowned and shrugged and meticulously impaled one blueberry on each tine of his fork. It escaped no one that Dylan had done this same thing a few minutes ago.

Now Dylan tried to help his brother out. “Sometimes I’m not ready to be sorry either,” he said. “Sometimes everybody’s not ready to be sorry.”

Taylor didn’t bite. Harley said, “Trying to say how you feel can be hard. I know it is for me. I know that when boys feel bad, they sometimes try to hide it. I sure do.”

At this, Taylor thrust his blueberry-tipped fork explosively toward the center of the table.

“Look!”

His brother grimaced.

His dad, hiding the same feeling, said, “Very cool.”