“AFTER BOBBY WALKED out on her, Rose came to my apartment,” Lu said. She was looking off into space. “I wasn't there, and the way I understand it, she ran all over the city trying to find me. She went to George's place, but George and Davy were in the Hamptons for the weekend. She went to the dance studio where I took class, and every store I'd ever shopped in, and all my favorite restaurants.” Lu sighed. “I was out celebrating because Bobby was going to finish his musical at last and I was going to have my comeback. I'd gone to a movie and I'd taken myself to Rumpelmayer's for a hot fudge sundae. When I got home, Rose was sitting on the floor in front of my door. All she had to do was knock and someone would have let her in, but she was sitting there, like a stray puppy.”

“Why did she want to see you?” Carrie asked. “No offense, but after everything you've told me, it doesn't sound like you were the person she'd go to for comfort.”

“No.” Lu brushed a few nut crumbs off the table onto the grass. Whatever she was about to say next was something she wished she could avoid. Finally she took the plunge. “Rose thought I knew about Bobby and Sandy. She thought I'd given him the keys to my house so he could stay there and sleep with her replacement.”

Carrie waited for Lu to follow up that statement with an emphatic denial.

Instead, Lu was silent. She was sitting up very straight, as if her spine were made of steel. Clearly, she was bracing herself for something.

“Was Mother right? Did you know?” Carrie asked.

Lu's spine got even straighter. “After all these years, I still can't answer that. If you mean, did Bobby or Sandy tell me? No, they didn't.”

“But you had lunch with them twice a week for a year. You were a part of the Gang of Four.”

“Yes. And I watched Sandy coax Bobby out of his bad moods and make him laugh. I watched her build his confidence back after he got sick.”

“She was good for him.”

“Yes.”

“Better than Mother was?”

“Rose loved Bobby—in a way, she loved him too much. But she wanted him to be a better man than he could be. Sandy thought he was perfect the way he was.”

“So his choice was mindless adoration or a woman making demands. And he went with mindless,” Carrie said scornfully. Her mother might have been difficult, but she was the one who had been wronged. It seemed to Carrie as if everyone who'd known them had been willing to cut her father way too much slack.

“He needed Sandy—then,” Lu said. “I don't know how long she would have lasted. And whatever Bobby needed, Bobby got. Everyone saw to it.”