Diane said nothing, as if she were sick of political intrigue. She turned back to the windows. Behind them, Caprice muted her phone again, restoring silence except for the beat of the storm. Tarla could see their reflections against the glass in the darkness of the morning. The light of the candles aged both of them. They were two middle-aged women at that stage of life when they had to decide if they could forgive themselves for their mistakes.

‘I told Cab things I probably shouldn’t have,’ Tarla admitted. ‘I’m sorry.’

Diane’s lips creased into something like a smile. ‘Well, I didn’t tell Cab things that I probably should. I guess that makes us even.’

‘You could have told me. I wouldn’t have judged either of you.’

‘Keeping secrets is a hard habit to break,’ Diane said.

Tarla heard her phone ringing in her purse on the breakfast table. She retrieved it and saw that her son was calling. ‘Speak of the devil,’ she told Diane. And then into the phone: ‘Hello, darling. We were just talking about you. Are you going to join us?’

‘Soon,’ Cab said, but his voice crackled with static, as if he were far away. ‘Is everything okay over there?’

‘Perfectly fine. Just three lonely women against the world. The power’s out, but we’re making do.’

‘You’re alone?’ Cab asked. ‘Where’s security?’

She struggled to hear him. ‘Oh, I’m sure there are men with guns wandering around somewhere. And of course, we have Garth, in case there’s a massage emergency.’

‘I’ll be there in less than an hour,’ he told her. Before he hung up, he added: ‘Mother, I don’t say this often, but be careful. If anything at all unusual happens, call 911, and then call me.’

‘You are so dramatic. I really wish you’d gone into acting.’

‘I’m serious.’

She lowered her voice. ‘I know you are, darling. I hear you. Get here soon.’

She hung up. Diane was watching her. ‘What did he say?’ she asked.

‘He’s on his way.’

Diane nodded. She took her empty champagne glass to the table and refilled it from a pitcher of mimosas. As she sipped the glass, she looked around the sunroom, and she seemed to notice for the first time that it was just the three women keeping vigil against the storm.

‘Where’s Garth?’ she asked.

*

Cab put down the phone. ‘There are no problems at Diane’s place for now,’ he said.

Peach wasn’t listening. She held her medical records in her hands without opening the file. ‘Why would Justin take this?’ she asked Cab. ‘Why would he care? And why hide it with these other things?’

‘I don’t know,’ Cab told her. ‘Sometimes boyfriends get curious about things they should leave alone.’