Both boys were devouring the salad—a win! Also, it was versatile. She’d made hers with chicken, but her vegetarian readers could easily substitute grilled or stir-fried tofu, and the pescatarians could use shrimp or even salmon. Provided the salmon was wild. Leo was very into sustainable seafoods, and he’d done a post about the dangers of farm-raised salmon that had generated a slew of reader mail. Though of course Leo’s preferred seafood was always the lake trout that he caught himself.

In between bites the boys were tripping over each other trying to tell Jeremy about their past few days. It was adorable, how happy they were to see him. And he seemed to be in a good mood, relaxed, smiling. Now they were telling him about the salmon pink bird-eating tarantula, native to Brazil, that had come to the library on exotic animal day.

“But you’re terrified of spiders, Lu.”

Lu only half heard him. She was wondering if it was worth creating a peanut-free version of the salad too, with a different kind of dressing. Maybe soy nuts to retain the crunch. She was also dreaming about a trip to India she’d create for Leo and Jacqui, something that would inspire a new twist on a chickpea curry. Maybe they’d gone before they were parents. Maybe they’d gone on their honeymoon! Yes. They also went to Thailand and visited an elephant sanctuary. Phuket Elephant Sanctuary. She’d do all of this tomorrow, plus the charcoal drawings to go with it. She also had to go to the bank and get cash for Maggie. For the first time since she’d been accumulating it, Lu had started to dip into the money in her private account, to pay Maggie. Once every few days she walked to the ATM at the Washington Trust Bank on Ocean Avenue. It wasn’t much—Maggie had quoted her a rate of eight dollars an hour, a steal—but still Lu cherished the feeling of withdrawing the cash that was her very own, and using it to pay her very own mother’s helper that she’d hired so she could run her very own business. Her own burgeoning empire.

“Spiders,” said Jeremy now. “You must have hated that.”

She had made the boys promise not to mention Maggie to either Jeremy or Nancy. Neither one would see it the right way. Nancy would wonder why Lu hadn’t just asked her to help if she needed some free time “to shop or exercise” (there were a hundred answers to that question), and Jeremy would see Maggie’s presence as Lu shirking her duties to the boys, Lu being dishonest, Lu spending money they didn’t, technically, have. For some reason Jeremy had no problem accepting a free summer home from his parents as well as a huge loan for a house down payment but would never dream of taking their money for small, day-to-day expenses. It didn’t make any sense to Lu, but then she hadn’t grown up with family money, so she supposed there were invisible rules she’d never understand.