“I’m headed to Providence for a dinner with some developers, and to top it all off, I’m probably going in the wrong direction.”

Probably not. Probably not a business dinner either, but she was long past the stage of having to second-guess him. Supposedly, he’d had a long talk with this woman he was infatuated with and had told her they should stop seeing each other. Jane tended to believe him, but with Dale, she always kept a few embers of skepticism glowing. “What’s the urgency of the phone call?”

“Now don’t get upset, Janey, but Caroline’s going to call you tonight. We’re going up to her family’s estate on the lake over Columbus Day, and she wants you and Thomas to come with us.”

“Out of the question,” Jane said.

“Well, obviously. I figured I’d warn you so you could have an excuse ready.”

The phone cut out. Perhaps he’d entered a tunnel or was passing through some catastrophic electromagnetic field. While she listened to a deafening storm of static, she felt increasingly annoyed that Dale found it so “obvious” that she would turn down Caroline’s invitation, as if her friendship with Just Caroline meant nothing and these coffee meetings the two of them had been having were immensely significant. When the phone cut back in, Dale was still babbling on, oblivious of the fact she hadn’t heard a word. “. . . I mean it wouldn’t work, under the circumstances, and with—”

“What circumstances are you talking about?” Jane interrupted. “We’ve had a few discussions about your marriage, which in my book is barely enough to qualify as a friendship, let alone a ‘circumstance.’”

She heard him sigh and then say, “Janey,” in that slightly annoyed, slightly amused way of his that made her body shudder with sour memories of hurt and anger and infatuation. Without too much effort, she could still feel his arms around her and his rough cheek rubbing against her neck and the swampy smell of the river on that windy afternoon. “Whatever you think is best,” he said with weary resignation.

“It’s not a matter of what I think is best, Dale, it’s a matter of figuring out a way to refuse without hurting Caroline’s feelings.” The signal cut out again, an electronic shriek sliced into her eardrum, and then a teenage boy’s voice came on talking about beer commercials. A perfect replacement for Dale.