Lily groaned. “I’m not going to fall off or get run over. Don’t worry. Ellen wants us to dress up like her for Halloween, and we just need some inspiration.”

Somehow a dead bride was more appealing than woodland creature costumes.

Lily got the lights untangled—turned out she’d borrowed them from Ellen—and we strung them up along the porch rails. As we incorporated body parts in our dirt piles, I grabbed a severed arm, chasing her around. “Give me your blood,” I called. She picked up a giant leg and we started dueling, until my arm (the fake one) flew out of my hand and sailed across the yard. As I turned, I saw it nearly hit Bettina, who was standing on the sidewalk, watching us.

“My god, I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t hear you coming.”

She tilted her head in the direction of Adam, whose saw was making a high-pitched whine.

“Right,” I said.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said formally, dressed, as always, like she’d stepped out of a fashion magazine with her black pencil skirt, pale pink silk shirt and cardigan, and pearls around her neck. “But I wanted to ask before I forgot. Sloane usually babysits the smaller kids the night of the block party, but she got invited to a friend’s house. I wanted to see if Lily might be interested.” Lily heard her name and walked toward us, still wielding the giant leg. “It’s pretty decent money, for not that hard work. We usually just corral them in someone’s living room after trick-or-treating and put on a movie. Half of them fall asleep by nine.”

Lily was alarmed. “Oh I don’t know—”

“That sounds great,” I interrupted, throwing a side eye at her. “Funny you ask, since Lily’s been talking lately about how she wants to be more independent. This is a great opportunity, don’t you think, hon?”

“I’ve never babysat before,” she blurted out.

“What are you talking about? You watched your cousins all the time.”

“Well, that’s different. But, Mom, Ellen and I were going to...” She trailed off, frowning, then murmured, “I just don’t want to babysit on Halloween.”

“Maybe you could talk to Sloane and she could give you all the insider scoop,” I said, wanting to help Bettina out. Broadening Lily’s friend horizon couldn’t hurt either, and the girls were close in age. But Lily gave me a face like I’d just suggested we all hold hands and skip down the street singing “We Are Family.”

“I’m sure she’d be happy to,” Bettina said. “We are having a little family and neighborhood gathering for her birthday this weekend if you guys want to come?”

“Oh,” I said, surprised. “Well, Lily and Adam will be coming back from Philly, but I can probably stop by.”