Kate had heard it before. “I’m well aware of your opinion on that. I happen to like my kids around me.”

“Actually, I have a better plan, anyway.” Tully flopped down on the sofa. “We’re going to talk about your writing.”

Kate almost dropped her latte. “M-my writing?”

“You always said you were going to start writing again when the boys were in school.”

“Give me some time, will you? They just started. Let’s talk about the show instead. Johnny tells me that—”

“I can see through your feeble tactics. You think I’ll forget everything else if you talk about me.”

“It’s usually true.”

“Touché. So, what will you write about?”

Kate felt exposed suddenly. “It’s an old dream, Tully.”

“Well, you’re getting old, so it’s perfect.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a coldhearted bitch?”

“Only the men who date me. Come on, Katie. Talk to me. I see how tired you are all the time. I know you need something more in your life.”

This was the last thing that Kate would have expected; that Tully, as on top of the world as she was, would notice her depression. At the realization, the fight went out of her. In truth, she was exhausted lately by the pretense, anyway. “It’s more than just that. I feel . . . lost. What I have should be enough, but somehow it isn’t. And Marah is wearing me down. Everything I do is wrong. I love her so much and she treats me like last year’s shoes.”

“It’s the age.”

“That excuse is wearing a little thin. Maybe I should let her take the modeling class she’s so jazzed about. I just hate to think of her in a world like that.”

“P.S.: We’re talking about you, here,” Tully said. “Look, Katie, I don’t know what you’re going through, but I know about wanting more. Sometimes you have to fight for the thing that will complete you.”

“Says the woman who has to borrow my family when she needs one.”

Tully smiled. “We’re quite a pair, aren’t we?”

For the first time in what felt like forever, Kate laughed. “We always have been. I’ll tell you what: I’ll think about writing if you think about falling in love.”

Tully looked at her. “Maybe it would be easier to think about spending the day on the beach.” She paused. “I haven’t heard from Grant since I moved out here.”

“I know,” Kate said. “I’m sorry. But I don’t think he was the one for you. If you two had been right for each other you’d have fallen in love.”

“That’s what people like you think,” Tully said quietly, and then brightened. “Come on, let’s make margaritas.”

“Now you’re talking. I’ll get drunk on the first day of kindergarten, and in the morning, no less. Perfect.”