“There’s so much to do,” Alex said vaguely. Her wedding to Mac would take place in three days, and more than two hundred people were coming. She had no idea how it had ballooned to this size. Mac had wanted to elope, but Alex couldn’t do that to her mother. She was the only girl in the family, and she knew that Polly had looked forward to her wedding since she was a child. Yet she felt largely left out of the vast preparations, as though she were a guest offering to help when the hostess had it all under control. The truth was, Polly was so organized, all Alex had to do was show up and say, “I do.”

“Is Mac still asleep?” asked Polly.

“Yes.”

“Well, poor thing, he got here so late. Anyway, I’m happy to have some time alone with you. We can look over the bouquets for the tables; I think we should reconsider the tulips. I forgot that Daddy hates them,” Polly said, giggling.

“Who’s coming to the barbecue?” Alex asked, turning off the gas and sitting at the kitchen table.

“Oh, scads of people.”

“You said it would be tiny.”

“Well, fairly tiny. The Smyths, minus the son—”

“The singing son isn’t coming?”

“He’s in music camp.”

“Devastating.”

“The Comiskys—you don’t know them. He’s the builder that’s going to do the renovation. He’s very funny.”

“Why are you inviting people I don’t even know…?”

“You know Jack and Breda Bruce, the photographers. They love you. And of course, the Hopkinses. And I had to invite the Levis … and oh, the Chekhovians!”

Alex stared at her mother. “The Chekhovians are coming? I thought they’d moved away.”

“They rented their house out for the whole of last summer, but I ran into Olivia at the market last week, and they’re living here again. She was wearing something out of Grey Gardens. A sort of a head scarf and—extraordinary. I heard myself inviting them—”

“Oh God, Mom—”

“I’m so sorry. It just fell out of my mouth. Olivia was thrilled. I always feel weirdly guilty when I see them.”

Alex nodded. The Chekhovians were a tragic family.

“I can’t remember why the little boy—”

“It was so sudden.”

“Horrible.”

“Then the husband.”

“Didn’t he go off with a woman who looked exactly like Olivia?”

“Exactly. I mean it was uncanny. Same age and everything. Very original in that respect. I really should have been in touch.”