“Too much to remember.” He came and kissed her on the forehead, and as he was leaving, she said, “Thomas, I wish you hadn’t told Caroline we’d go to the lake.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

His back was to her, but there was something unsettling in the way he’d asked, almost as if he was testing her, or possibly trying to trip her up. From the moment they’d met, she’d been careful never to mention Dale in ways that would make Thomas think she had any good feelings for him lingering on the edges of her subconscious. It wasn’t exactly a struggle, since she wasn’t aware of any lingering good feelings.

“I don’t know,” she said. “It might be awkward.”

“There’ll be lots of family and friends floating around. I think it will be fine. It will be good for Gerald.”

“He hates New Hampshire.”

“He’s never been, Jody. By the way, I was on the deck and overheard some of the toast discussion. Don’t take it all so seriously. He’s only six.”

2.

When she got out of her appointment with Dr. Berman, she felt worse than she’d felt in weeks. What she’d wanted to discuss with him was her inability to tell Thomas she was back in therapy, but the more she thought about it and the harder she tried to find a way to bring it up, the more impossible it seemed. It was the kind of thing she should have mentioned immediately, in the first or second session; telling it now, after months of twice-weekly meetings, would probably make Berman think she was acting out or resisting treatment. She gave up the idea and rambled on in a monotone about how abandoned she’d felt when her parents had died. That was always good to kill time, and it was the kind of topic that seemed to please Berman. It was probably useful, in a therapeutic sense, even though she was almost certain she’d worked through all that material years ago. And yet, driving back to her office, she felt so frustrated, she called Desmond from her cell phone and asked him if he’d like to meet her later in the day for coffee. He’d love to, he told her. He said it in such a heartfelt, relieved voice, it was obvious he was lonely, sitting around that grim room reading student papers and listening to Pauline Anderton. She felt such a flush of sympathy for him, she decided to go all out and suggested they meet at the Ritz.