Fanchon, in a pair of black toreador pants and a cardigan in poppy red that had to be at least two sizes too small, was full of herself, hanging on Tim and cooing over every detail, but all along she was looking to her main chance when it came to divvying up the rooms, make no doubt about that. As Joanie herself was (though, of course, as she had to remind herself, it wasn’t a competition and there was plenty of room for everybody). Each floor, each hallway, offered up new possibilities, and while Tim presided and everybody gabbled at once till the excitement was a current running through all of them like a new kind of electricity, she was trying to decide what would work out best—ground floor, where you had access to the gardens and all that glorious acreage or second or even third floor, where you could take in the views?

Tim, gesturing with his glass, reassured them. “Nothing’s permanent. Just pick whatever rooms strike your fancy, okay? If you don’t like them, we’ll switch them up, no problem. I want you all to be happy.”

They were on the second floor, the windows pregnant with rain, everybody milling around as if they were on a museum tour—and in a sense they were, because that was what this was, a museum, though in this case it was one you could live in. The kids—Corey, the Roberts twins and the Eggers trio—had vanished the minute they’d come in the front door, off on their own more visceral tour under the auspices of Suzie and Jackie, who’d been here a week already and knew the odd corners and adolescent enticements of the house in the way no adult ever could.

“Is everybody happy?” Tim asked.

“Happy?” Ken echoed. “We’re ecstatic.” And here he looked to Fanchon. “Right, kitten?”

“It is awestruck,” she said, and then corrected herself, “awesome. Times ten the size of Dick’s house—and Homer Street? Not even the same page.”

“Three cheers for Tim!” Rick Roberts cried, raising his glass, and they all joined in till they trailed off in laughter, delighted with themselves. They couldn’t believe their luck, couldn’t believe all this was theirs. Alice was crying, actually crying, with joy. Charlie’s glasses flashed. Tim grinned his grin. Fitz turned and gave her a hug. It was a moment, maybe the moment all her life had been building toward.