“Lie to you.” Iris says the phrase as though hearing it for the first time and it possibly being in a foreign language. “Why do you think I’ve lied to you?”

“I’m just asking. You wouldn’t. I mean, lie about more than something like Santa Claus.”

“Santa is real. I can’t help what the rest of the world thinks.” This is an old joke between them, but Grant doesn’t smile. “No, baby, I wouldn’t lie to you.”

“All right,” he says. His look is still neutral, but he keeps his gaze locked on her as she closes the door.

Her family, she thinks, will get through this. They’ll figure it out. She goes down the stairs, a bit shaken, telling herself: his asking that, it didn’t mean anything.

*  *  *

Iris backs out of the driveway, “Mom Channel” playing softly; the news crews are gone from in front of Danielle’s house. She has a hunch and turns onto Mike’s street, and yes, there they are. They found out where Ned was staying and that Mike was her boyfriend. She could strangle whoever told them. But they probably found it through social media, like Kyle suggested. She drives past; they don’t look at her, not that they would know who she is.

She realizes if they’re still there, this is a gauntlet she might have to run when she brings their dinner tonight.

She drives into Lakehaven, down Old Travis, turning into one of the larger shopping centers in the town. Trivet is a small coffee shop in Lakehaven, but it has held on in the face of chain-store saturation. Book clubs meet there, church groups, writer groups. It’s owned by a pair of Lakehaven grads and is an institution in the town.

And it’s where the moms who Danielle helped often meet. They call themselves the Mommy Club.

It surprised Iris how much international adoption occurred in Lakehaven. But she can count twelve families who have adopted from overseas. The reasons vary. Some feel a religious calling to bring a child home. Others can’t conceive. Others already have children and decide to add one more. But once every couple of months (it has gotten more difficult as the children have gotten older), Danielle and her flock of moms she helped get together at Trivet to share stories, support one another, laugh. Iris knows many parents through her volunteering, but she thinks of this group as her real friends.

Susan, Georgina, and Francie are already there. Susan, a University of Texas professor of biochemistry, two children adopted from China. Georgina owns a jewelry store in Lakehaven, mother of six, one child adopted from Ghana. Francie, co-owner with her husband of an investment firm, three children adopted from Russia, older than Grant.