“It’s a thing,” Daniel said. He was smiling to beat the band.

“What?” she said. “What are you so cheerful about over there?”

“Nothing. Just that I taught her a lot of those things.”

“You did?”

“Sure thing. Intro to the Stock Market. Remember I told you I had her in class?” He looked proud, spine straight, eyes eager and alert, like Bernice when she’d done something special and was waiting for a reward.

“Wow,” said Rebecca. “Well, I think you did a really good job. She seems like an actual expert. But—” She paused. “But don’t you think it’s terrible, that I didn’t know about it? It makes me feel like such a bad mother. I found out from Morgan, of all people. I used to be the one who told Morgan things that she didn’t know, and now Morgan is schooling me. My own daughter.” They continued along the path to where it curved toward the formal Italian and rose gardens, which were part of the original estate and were still kept up by the park service. In these gardens roses and other flowers grew willfully, abundantly.

“I don’t think it’s terrible at all,” said Daniel. “I think it’s the opposite of terrible. I think it’s fantastic. Really. Teenagers do all sorts of things without their parents’ knowledge. You know that.”

“I know,” said Rebecca morosely. “I was a teenager once too.”

“Much of it way, way worse than secretly learning about the stock market. Believe me. I’ve been teaching high school since the dawn of the Internet. And at the risk of sounding self-referential, I couldn’t be happier. I can’t wait to see some of these videos myself!”

Daniel’s unbridled enthusiasm put Rebecca at ease, and she reached down and unclipped Bernice’s leash from her collar, allowing her to indulge in some illegal off-leash walking. “I guess you’re right,” she said. “No, I don’t guess you’re right. You are right. You are. There’s no harm done, right? And it’s just for now. She probably won’t keep up with any of this once she leaves for college.”

“Exactly,” said Daniel. “I think that’s exactly right.”

“But what do I do? Do I confront her about it? Do I put some limits on her?”

She could tell Daniel was thinking long and hard about this because furrows appeared on his forehead. “You know what? I wouldn’t. I’d give it some time, a week or two, maybe more. Does she seem happy?”

Rebecca thought about seeing Alexa and Cam walking pleasantly down Pleasant Street; she thought about how Alexa was helping Sherri out whenever she needed it—sometimes, Sherri had told her, free of charge! “Happier than I’ve seen her in a long time,” she admitted.