It was funny how certain actions really showed your genetic heritage. Joy looked just like Maggie when she cried, in the same way that Lu and her sister laughed alike because they both held their hands over their mouths the same way. (Lu had decided that this was because they were always trying to hide the gaps in their front teeth.)

“No!” Lu cried. “Of course she doesn’t. Of course she doesn’t like me better.”

“She does.” Joy nodded. “She does.”

“It’s not that. It’s not you. It’s just the nature of mothers and daughters, that’s all.”

“How would you know?” asked Joy. “You have sons. Dear little sweet, loyal sons.” She wiped her eyes with a napkin.

Lu considered this. “You’re right,” she said. “I don’t have a daughter. But I was a daughter, don’t forget. A thousand years ago, I was a teenage girl with a mother.”

Lu’s mother would have been over the moon if Lu had confided in her, and Lu refused to tell her anything. What had Lu’s mother ever done to Lu, except for at one time know her so intimately that Lu couldn’t bear to expose her to all of the humiliations involved in her growing up?

“Did you tell your mother everything?” Lu asked Joy. She sipped her drink. The almond syrup turned out to be a really nice addition, well worth the extra cash.

“Definitely not.” Joy tied another knot in the coffee stirrer. “My mother was far too busy keeping up with my brothers to pay much attention to what I was doing. I was sort of a wild child, on the streets of Fall River.”

“There you go!” Lu felt triumphant. “See? It’s not that different.”

“I don’t know. It is, though. I have all these brothers, and I have a dad—it was chaos, all the time. Nobody was focused on just me, it was nobody’s job to do that. And that was fine. But Maggie is my responsibility, she’s all mine. I mean, Dustin exists, obviously. But he’s . . .” She paused. Her eyes flashed.

“Negligible?” offered Lu.

Joy smiled, a little. Progress. “Right. His influence is pretty negligible. It’s all on me, when you get right down to it. And I don’t think I’m doing a very good job. I’ve been taking my eye off the ball. For part of the summer I was caught up in Anthony, who turned out to be a jerk and a liar . . .”

Lu winced. Anthony had told her about what had happened with him and Joy. She understood why Joy was angry, but she also thought Anthony deserved another chance.

“Sorry. I know you’re friends with him. But he did turn out to be that way. And at the same time I’ve been obsessed with my business, which has been sucking wind, and also with the Roving Patisserie, which I think was put on this earth in general and specifically this island to torture me. And Maggie slipped through the cracks. For the first time ever, she slipped through the cracks. I’ve never let that happen before.” Joy’s voice broke. “I’ve never let that happen.”