Tess helps Jack and Kate helps Stella, and Colin, Jamie, and Bea all put their coats on by themselves. Quinn and Maddie put on their coats too. Josh gets the booze from the table and some glasses, but then leaves the glasses and passes the bottle to Martin, who sips straight from it and smiles at his brother-in-law as Henry leads them out. The rain’s gone, and the sky is clear.

As the kids bound toward the barn, Colin takes his coat off and Martin catches it, and Bea does the same and Martin grabs hold of hers as well.

Alice grabs hold of Quinn as Maddie runs up ahead with Stella. “I need you to promise it won’t happen again,” she says.

Quinn nods. She looks at Alice. “Okay,” she says. She squeezes Alice’s arm and keeps hold of it as they keep walking.

“I am clearly not . . .” Alice starts. “I can’t be your caseworker anymore.”

Quinn lets go of her arm.

“I don’t have to give a reason,” Alice says. “No one has to know about this, but I can’t—it’s okay, she’s okay, but it’s not okay what we did.”

Quinn nods again, hands at her sides, eyes still tracking Maddie.

“We can still . . .” Alice starts, but they both know they can’t, that they won’t ever be friends.

“She left to find a tree,” Quinn says.

“I fucked up too,” Alice says. “I should never—”

“Neither of us should,” Quinn says.

Alice looks straight at her, and both of them stop walking. She holds both Quinn’s shoulders and thinks, again, how very young she is. “You won’t ever again.”

Inside the barn, sheets are strung up on the ceiling to cover what’s above them.

“Lie down,” says Henry.

The floor is wood, unfinished. Tess doesn’t check for splinters. Everyone does as Henry’s asked.

Alice is next to Maddie without having meant to be. Quinn is on the other side. Kate’s by Bea; the twins settle in below and beside her. Josh lies on Kate’s free side. Martin holds Stella’s hand, and Colin loops one leg over his mother’s, who pulls at the neck of her turtleneck as she settles down onto the floor.

“Should we close our eyes or something?” Kate says.

“Sure,” says Henry.

Stella and Bea close their eyes slowly, and the twins shut theirs so tight their faces start to hurt. Colin puts his hand over his eyes. He watches, though, through the slats between his fingers as his uncle pulls the closer sheet down and—though he only helped that little bit yesterday morning, though there’s no reason maybe to feel what he feels—Colin feels proud.