In Bonaire it felt like summer. Peyton was calmer and A-C was kinder, watching palm trees sway in the breezy brightness. All four of the kids loved the big iguanas who lived by the villa’s private pool. One was out basking near the deep end that afternoon, sunning himself fearlessly as the girls floated nearby, his weird, floppy toes splayed and his chin up.

The girls were tired from scuba, all three drifting on bright floats. Purple, yellow, blue. Trey had been an avid diver. He’d always meant for his kids to learn. Bree was making good on that. Of all of them, Marshall probably loved scuba most, even though with four ladies and five heavy dive bags, he got stuck with most of the gear rinsing.

It was nice to have the option to take up such an expensive sport. To be able to say, Fuck it, the weather changed and we feel sad—let’s go to the Caribbean. Bree had said yes immediately. No thinking. Just, Yes, let’s do that. As if it were a reasonable plan to on the spur of the moment buy seven business-class tickets, rent a five-bedroom villa, pay for diving lessons and equipment.

Marshall had wondered if in another decade or so he wouldn’t blink at an unplanned, unsaved-for vacation.

It was a good problem to have. He was getting used to it. He didn’t really need to work, actually, but God, he loved his job. With Bree he had real backup. She and Cara were thick as thieves. She looked at his girl and she saw Betsy, same as him. There was no reason not to do the thing he loved. So detectives earned a little less money than lead investigators at tier-one law firms. Really not an issue these days.

The girls chatted lazily on their floats. Peyton in the middle, buffering. Two divas under one roof was a lot of divas, and the more Cara came into her mother’s sly and sparkling beauty, the more she held her own with A-C.

He was glad the diving tired them out. The cast list for Chicago, Junior, the high school’s spring show, had landed while they were at the airport. Cara had been cast as Roxie Hart, the part A-C had gone after, while A-C was Velma Kelly, the part Cara wanted most. The girls were juniors, and they’d won the lead roles over quite a few disgruntled seniors. They ought well be damn happy. And they were happy. Mostly. Just there was a lot of side-eye happening on this trip.

That was the downside, he thought. To the money. What they needed, they already had, pretty much on tap. Most of what they wanted, they got. They thought the world was like that. Shocking how fast Cara had come to think the world was like that. He and Bree were working on it.