“I could probably find something. I’m sure there are owl costumes out there. I just thought that would be—cute. Wise old owl?”

“Sounds like a hoot,” Bettina said, and she and Pia did snicker this time.

“I’ll look into it,” I said. “The company might have something. I want us all to match.” She seemed wounded, but I could only help her so much. If she was going to hang out with us, she needed to grow thicker skin.

“Oh, y’all. This will be fun.” Alice touched her nose with her finger. “I get a little brown nose. And a fluffy little tail.”

“I’ve got to go,” Bettina said, taking a step back from the group. “Joe’s mother is in town for this. She’s driving me bat-shit—Oh! Henrietta! How are you? Be right over!”

We mingled. Alice stepped away to keep Jonah from injuring himself climbing a tree. Theresa took a phone call from Adam. My headache was still raging, so I left Pia talking animatedly with one of Bettina’s sisters about the latest episode of a trashy reality show so I could get a breather.

I went inside, found Advil in Bettina’s medicine cabinet, and then slipped into the small guest room off the kitchen to rest for a minute.

I lay on the bed and put my hand over my eyes, trying to ignore the murmurs of the party outside. I hadn’t been sleeping well. I was doing too much again. You need to learn to delegate tasks, my boss used to tell me at each annual review. You can’t do anything well if you try to do everything. But what the fuck did he know? He was single, no kids, and he inserted mistakes into my press releases whenever he reviewed them.

But the no sleeping was a problem.

Pia was right. I couldn’t stand the sound of the foxes. That high-pitched scream. A young woman’s cry, echoing through the forest. It was always in my nightmare. The same nightmare I’d been having for years. That scream, coming out of the blackness, terrified. Hollow. It clawed beneath my skin, waking me each time in a cold sweat.

“Here she is.” Light and noise burst into the room.

I sat up, blinking as my pupils adjusted. Alice and Bettina and Pia came storming in, shutting the door behind them. There was barely enough space for all of them to stand at the foot of the bed.

“What the—”

Bettina crossed her arms. “You got a photo, and you didn’t tell us?”

Pia, standing by the door, had the grace at least to look guilty when her eyes met mine. “I felt like they needed to know.”

“What did the message say?” Alice demanded, her voice cracking.

“I was going to tell you guys.” It sounded weak, even to me.

“When? When I found someone tip-toeing outside my kitchen window?” Alice asked.