“She resigned. Told me that she was so busy at work it was probably better that she drop out for a while. That was back in the spring or summer. She must have been feeling too awkward and guilty to come. She got off the phone almost as soon as she delivered her message. We got a new cookie virgin. Sissy. Tara’s boyfriend’s mother. My co-grandma. If there is such a word.”

“You’re not going to kick me out, are you?”

“Of course not!”

“I won’t look at Rosie, I’ll just be with everyone else.”

I squinched up my face when I imagined the party that had always been simply girlfriends enjoying one another. “You look like you could use those cookies. You look too thin.”

“Yeah. It’s all the exercise.”

“Maybe by then this will be resolved. Right? Why don’t we go for drinks and mussels this Friday. We’ll go together.”

“Do they still go?” Jeannie asks.

“I haven’t seen them there. I went two weeks ago.”

She frowned and shook her head.

“How about shopping? It’s so much fun to go with you and the sales are terrific.”

“Maybe.”

But we never went. She just came for breakfast after yoga and played with her food.

* * *

NOW HERE WE are. Nothing has changed in three months except that Rosie has lost her determination to resurrect the friendship and Jeannie’s trap has become the fabric of her life along with a passion for yoga. I glance at her nestled in cushions that she hopes will protect her from the whirlwind, her cheekbones sharp in her face and her eyes alert.

She says again, “It’s not about me. It’s about them. It’s their fault. They have to solve it.”

I soften my voice and say quietly and as gently as I can, “They can’t solve it for you. They’re going to solve it for them. How you react, what you do is about you. You blame the messenger and are furious at Sue.”

“And my father. And I’m scared for my mom. And I’m trying to figure out what to do next.”

“You can only rescue yourself.”

“Whether I should tell my mother,” she says as though I had interrupted her. “Confront my father.”

“Jeannie, there’s no way to put this back the way it was. There’s no way for this to resolve without people you love hurting. Even if you decide to let them do what they need to do and not interfere, you still have to decide that. Be comfortable with it. Stop going back and forth looking for a rescue for all of them that works for you, too.”

“You sound like Allie.”

I continue, “You. The wonderful buoyant, organized Jeannie you are.”

At that moment Charlene and Sissy and Laurie return from the kitchen. Charlene senses the silence and stops, and then enters the room.

“Me? Buoyant?”