“Wow,” Kate whispered. When had that transformation occurred? She wasn’t overblown Tallulah anymore, child of the cocaine-and-glitter eighties. She was reporter Tallulah Hart, as beautiful as Paulina Porizkova, as professional as Diane Sawyer.

“Wow is right,” Johnny said. “She looks gorgeous.”

They watched the rest of the broadcast. Then he kissed Kate’s cheek and headed into the bathroom. Within moments she heard the shower start.

“She looks gorgeous,” Kate muttered, leaning sideways for the phone.

She punched in Tully’s number. The NBC receptionist answered and said she’d need to leave a message.

So Tully was pissed.

“Tell her Katie called to say the story was great.”

Tully was probably right there, standing next to the phone, wearing her expensive designer skirt and blouse, digging through her quilted designer handbag, watching the light flash on her phone.

Kate got out of bed and went into the bathroom. There was no point in trying to sleep any more. Marah would waken any minute. In the shower, her husband was singing a very off-key version of an old Rolling Stones’ song.

Against her better judgment she looked in the mirror. Steam clouded her reflection but didn’t obscure it.

Her hair was straggly and too long. Dark blond roots showed how long it had been since she’d had a foil. She had bags under her eyes the size of open umbrellas and enough cleavage for two women.

No wonder she tried to stay away from reflective surfaces. With a sigh, she reached for the toothpaste and began brushing her teeth. Before she’d finished, she felt Marah wake up.

Turning off the water, she opened the door.

Sure enough, Marah was screaming.

Kate’s day had begun.

When the big day arrived, Kate wondered why in the hell she’d planned such a ridiculous birthday party for her daughter. In the morning, after another sleepless night, she got up and began the preparations, putting the finishing touches on the pink Barbie doll cake and wrapping the last few presents. In a moment of obvious madness, she’d invited all the children from Marah’s Mommy and Me class, as well as two former sorority sisters who had similarly aged daughters and her parents. Even Johnny had taken the morning off work for the extravaganza. When they all arrived, on time, bearing gifts, Kate immediately got a headache. It didn’t help that Marah picked that moment to start screaming, either.

Still, the party went on, with all the women in the living room and the kids on the floor, making more noise than Sherman marching into Atlanta.

“I saw Tully on that really early show the other morning,” Mary Kay said. “I was up with Danny.”

“I was up, too,” Charlotte said, reaching for her coffee. “She looked great, didn’t she?”

“That’s because she sleeps through the night,” Vicki pointed out. “And her clothes don’t always have puke on them.”