“Are they thrilled?” Renee asked.

Sadie gave a one-shouldered shrug. “Everything there is currently neat and in order, which means they must be positively ecstatic.”

Renee didn’t question the edge to Sadie’s voice, and instead told her all about Tansy’s new life in Los Angeles. Sadie said how fun and exciting that sounded, even though Renee swore she slightly hesitated over her word choices.

“How has working with Dr. Hanlon been?” Sadie asked while replacing the Wild Kratts with Yo Gabba Gabba! “I’m so glad there’s finally a full-time pediatrician there instead of that revolving door of temporary docs.”

Renee’s cheeks flushed. Hopefully Sadie didn’t notice that she suddenly resembled a tomato. “It’s been a very smooth transition,” she replied with professional blandness. “Lincoln’s in fab hands. Um, can you preheat the oven for me, please? Four hundred degrees.”

Her thoughts strayed to Dr. Dan’s big strong hands, his bare left one in particular, and wondered how they’d feel sliding up the back of her arms. Were his fingertips callused from sailing? Rough and strong?

“Hey, um…can I ask a personal question?” Sadie asked right as the kitchen timer dinged.

“Of course,” she replied, retrieving the discs of pie dough and ducking her head to hide her burning cheeks. Hopefully she wasn’t about to ask if Renee was a secret horndog.

“Well, did you know your divorce was coming? Like…were there signs things were going wrong?”

“Oh.” Renee paused from rolling the dough, momentarily frozen.

Sadie had never known Russell. She hadn’t started to babysit for Tansy until a few months after he’d left, when Tansy was only five.

“Yes and no,” Renee replied, spilling a little sugar. She wiped her trembling hands on her jeans as memories flooded in.

Those too-quiet family dinners, the only source of conversation a babbling Tansy, and the year Russ forgot her birthday. How he wanted to move to a ski town and how he accused Renee of being a prude on the nights she was just exhausted.

“I knew we had problems, but I never expected him to leave me for Tansy’s kindergarten teacher.”

Sadie whipped around from the oven. “Hold the phone. I’d heard my parents talking about Russell like he was a major jerk, but never got the whole story.”

“It was a big scandal at the time. At least they waited until the end of the school year.” Ms. Samantha had been a slightly younger, slightly thinner, and slightly more attractive version of Renee. She even had strawberry-blond hair. “They moved to Stowe, Vermont, and now have three children.”

“No way. I didn’t realize Tansy has half-siblings.”

“She only sees them sporadically. Unfortunately, Russell never made much of an effort to integrate her into his new family.” Renee cleared her throat, the lie heavy on her tongue as she tried to sound more upset about this injustice than she actually felt. The awful truth was that she was selfishly glad to have Tansy to herself. Russ had taken her self-esteem, belief in love, and trust. But her daughter was hers. “But why dredge up ancient history?”