Somebody, we can’t remember who now, said they thought they’d seen Sherri flirting with Joe. And that maybe he was flirting back. After the year that Esther had, and that thing with the office assistant, believe us, that was the last thing that Esther needed to worry about. They were still in therapy!

On another note, that was the night all of the girls were at Brooke’s house. They were going to swim and watch a movie. Brooke’s sister was there to watch over them. And where was Morgan? At her own house, with Katie and Alexa. Who had, what, nothing better to do on the Fourth?

It was almost like they were trying to exclude themselves.

31.

Alexa

Alexa hadn’t heard from Cam since the not-Dave Matthews concert. Fine, she thought, when she allowed herself to think about him at all. He was probably busy finding homes for orphaned puppies. Which was fine. She had a lot of work to do on Silk Stockings, and also to get ready for her move: she could afford no distractions.

On her way to Olive Street to babysit for Katie Griffin for the first time, she checked her phone anyway. Nothing from Cam. (She didn’t care.) Nothing from Tyler either. Not that she was surprised by that; she did blow him off the night before he left for Silver Lake. She had checked his Instagram a couple of times to see if he’d posted anything from Michigan, but he hadn’t. Caitlin hadn’t tried to make any more overtures since lunch at Popovers, and Alexa hadn’t reached out to Destiny.

Congratulations, Alexa, she told herself. You have successfully alienated just about everyone.

Sherri and Katie lived in one half of a two-family on Olive Street, not far from the high school, where the houses were crowded together and the sidewalks a little crumbly. Could Alexa have walked to Olive Street from her home on High Street? Yes. But did she? Nope. Alexa had never been one to walk when she could drive.

Alexa expected that Sherri would be like most of her mom’s friends, with good hair and well-groomed eyebrows and a decent sense of fashion, at least for an older person. But Sherri was wearing khaki pants and a polo shirt with a logo on it, and her drab hair was in a low ponytail.

Sherri told Alexa that when they first moved to Newburyport she left Katie alone when she went out to dinner, but that Katie got a little freaked out because of all of the creaks and groans the old house made.