GRACE INTENDED TO cool off and calm down before she stopped by her parents’ house to pick up Aubrey. When she was this emotionally churned up, there was no hiding it from anyone, much less from a mother or a very perceptive child.

The last thing she wanted was questions. The last thing she felt capable of giving was explanations.

She’d said what needed to be said and done what needed to be done. And she refused to feel sorry for it. If it meant losing a long-standing friendship, one that she had always treasured, it couldn’t be helped. Somehow she and Ethan would manage to be adult enough to be polite when in public and not to drag anyone else into their battles.

It certainly wouldn’t be an easy or happy situation, but it could work. The same arrangement had worked for three years with her father, hadn’t it?

She drove around for twenty minutes, until her fingers were no longed gripping the wheel like a vise and the reflection of her face in the rearview mirror was no longer capable of frightening children and small dogs.

She assured herself that she was now perfectly under control. So under control that she thought she’d take Aubrey out to McDonald’s for a treat. And on her very next evening off, she was taking them both to Oxford for the Firemen’s Carnival. She certainly wasn’t going to stay around the house moping.

She didn’t slam the door of her car, which she felt was an excellent sign of her now placid mood. Nor did she stomp up the steps of her parents’ tidy Colonial. She even paused for a moment to admire the pale-purple petunias spilling out of a hanging planter near the picture window.

It was just bad luck and bad timing that her gaze shifted a few inches past the blooms and that she spotted her father through that picture window, lounging in his recliner like a king on his throne.

Temper geysered and blasted her through the door like a sharp-edged pebble from a well-aimed slingshot.

‘‘I have a few things to say to you.’’ She let the door slam at her back and marched up to where Pete rested his feet. ‘‘I’ve been saving them up.’’

He goggled at her for the five seconds it took for him to arrange his face. ‘‘If you want to speak to me, you’ll do it in a civilized tone of voice.’’

‘‘I’m through being civilized. I’ve had civilized up to here.’’ She made a sharp slashing motion with her hand.

‘‘Grace! Grace!’’ Cheeks flushed, eyes huge, Carol hustled in from the kitchen with Aubrey on her hip. ‘‘What’s gotten into you? You’ll upset the baby.’’

‘‘Take Aubrey back to the kitchen, Mama. And it won’t traumatize her for life to hear her mother raise her voice.’’