“I think you should have it looked at,” said Lu.

“Let me see,” said Joy, more gently. Maggie moved the hand that was covering her wrist and Joy bent over it. Lu was right: she could see the swelling. “Oh, sweetie,” she said. “How’d this happen?”

“I fell off my bike,” said Maggie, at the same time that Lu said, “She fell down the steps at Mohegan Bluffs.”

“You what? All of them?”

“No. Just the last few.”

Small consolation. “What were you doing out there at night?”

“It’s a long story,” said Maggie.

“I wish Jeremy were here,” said Lu quickly. “He could have a look. You see how it’s starting to bruise there, just near the bone? And I didn’t want to have her try to turn it, but I don’t know if she could.”

“I can’t,” whispered Maggie.

“Oh, honey,” said Joy. She was a terrible mother, not to have noticed immediately that something was wrong. “We do need to get this looked at. In the car.”

“My bike—”

“I’ll come back for it tomorrow. In the car, okay?”

Still Maggie stood there, and then Lu said, “Maggie, let me talk to your mom for a sec.” It was then that Maggie decided to get in the car. Of course she listened to Lu.

Once Maggie had left to get in the car, Joy turned to Lu and said, “I still don’t understand what happened—why she— Oh, never mind. It’s not important now. What’s important is that she’s okay. Thank you for calling me.”

“Of course.” Lu hesitated. Then: “Do you mind if I say something?”

Very much so. “No,” said Joy.

“Don’t be too hard on her.”

Joy set her teeth together.

“About the grounding,” said Lu. “She’s had quite a night. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it.”

I’m sure she won’t, thought Joy grimly.

Lu touched Joy lightly on the shoulder, and there was something about the touch that made it all come roiling to the surface—all of the disappointments of the summer: her disappointment in Anthony, and her terror at the thought of Maggie growing up and leaving her alone, and her worries about her business and the money and the goddamn macarons, and how she might one day in the very near future be an old lady who lived alone with one or more cats, without even the benefit of the grave of a loved one to visit, as Mrs. Simmons had.

It took every ounce of Joy’s self-control not to slap away Lu’s hand. But she did flick it. “In the future,” she said coldly, enjoying the look of dismay on Lu’s face, “if my daughter comes here, and she’s hurt, I’d appreciate if you’d call me right away. Maybe forgo the ice-cream celebration.”

“I’m sorry—” said Lu. “I just thought . . .”

Joy didn’t let her finish. She made her angry way to the Jeep. Maggie was already in, seat belt on, eyes straight ahead. If Anthony were to have looked out his window he would have seen the Jeep reverse and start down Corn Neck Road on the way to the Block Island Medical Center, where Joy knew from Olivia Rossi that her mother, an ER nurse who had trained at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, was on the overnight shift.