“Ogilvie is not good for my health.” She said it out loud to nobody at all. Tony was in Savannah, most probably in a bar scanning the women for a Harriet Darling look-alike, or maybe Harriet had snuck back there somehow and they were holed up in a motel. Rivera was at Old Roses with Caroline, and no doubt John would end up there after he dropped off Tab. Which was the way it should be.

Then Rivera would come back here and sit on the floor with her back against the couch and listen to what Angie had to say, no matter how absolutely ridiculous it might be. Because as many times as Angie turned things around in her head, the sentences that presented themselves were going to be hard to spit out.

I almost kissed John Grant was no better than I wanted to kiss John Grant, but certainly not as bad as I still want to kiss John Grant or, God forbid, All I can think about is kissing John Grant. All those things were true, and here was another one she would have to get out in the open if she was ever to sleep another hour: John Grant wants to kiss me as much as I wanted to kiss him, but he’s too dumb to figure that out. Dumb as a sack full of hammers.

And the real kicker: He’s getting married in a week.

The wonderful thing about Rivera was that nothing was ever complicated. An overdue gas bill, war in the Middle East, an affair gone sour, she could resolve any problem in three sentences or less. She would say, Figure out what you want, calculate the costs, make your plans. And: Start by getting get your pitiful self off the couch.

But Rivera wasn’t back yet to shame Angie into saving her own life. Instead there was a moth bumping against the lampshade and rain on the roof and a smell of wet grass. It had been a very long day; Angie fell asleep.

John meant, once he had dropped Tab off, to drive over to Caroline’s and instead found himself parked in front of his own house in Tab’s convertible, which smelled of cigars and hot sauce and boys’ sweaty gym clothes. It was surprisingly comfortable, and he might have gone to sleep just where he was, glad of the quiet and the dark and the rain.

He made himself reach for his cell phone. It felt warm in his hand as he listened to the ringing on the other end. He was thinking of hanging up when Caroline answered, a little out of breath.

“I was wondering about you,” she said.