Ronnie responded with an eye-roll emoji. This had become their thing in the past day—Ronnie, Lauren, and Andrea copying and pasting notes of ridiculous hysteria within the Raisin Beach mom community. Like the argument that exploded over the mom who’d posted on Nextdoor that she was charging cash for her extra breast milk. Or the fight that had broken out on a local mom Facebook group about who has it harder, working moms or stay-at-home moms? And then there was the constant one-upmanship—whose baby had already learned to walk, whose three-year-old could already ride a two-wheeler, whose five-year-old knew all his multiplication tables. If you believed everything you read, Raisin Beach was chock-full of baby savants.

Ronnie enjoyed the banter. Lauren and Andrea made her feel more normal, especially knowing that they found some of the things people worried about around here ridiculous, too. They were on their way to becoming friends, maybe.

If she didn’t pull her kid out of Silver Swans first. It was very possible it was these very moms on the sites who wanted Ronnie out.

Lane placed the hummus on the side table and settled into a chair, propping his long legs on the iron railing that circled the balcony and staring at the paltry strip of starry sky. Still, the view was a huge step up from the view of the dumpster she’d had in the shitbox she had lived in when she and Esme first arrived in Raisin Beach. That apartment had been attached to a mechanic’s shop—so it always smelled like diesel fuel—and had a two-burner stove, a minifridge, and only enough space for a double bed and a couch. After dating for a little while, Lane had visited Ronnie’s just once, when he’d said, “You know, I think you guys should just come stay with me. We’ve got a pool!” That was a year ago.

What sort of man offered to find housing for a woman and her child after only a few weeks of dating? Well, maybe a man who came from a comfortable background and had two benevolent parents. Lane’s mother and father, Sarah and Martin, were always housing exchange students when Lane was young. There was one girl from Liberia, Lucia, who they’d put up for a whole year in high school—and then she came back to the US years later and had no one to turn to, and Lane’s parents took her in again, and not just her but her brand-new husband and their baby daughter. For almost a year!