But there were other, less solvable, problems. Like Grant. He’d shown up at the Coxes’ two days after the fire. He wouldn’t say where he had been. “It doesn’t matter,” he’d said, but it did to Suzanne. He’d tried to explain away the boudoir shot as a joke, but Suzanne wasn’t having it. She told him to leave and never come back—and so far, he hadn’t. The longer he was gone, the better her case for abandonment, Suzanne said, having consulted a lawyer. It seemed clear which way that marriage was going.

Her and Ted’s was less certain. Valeria, who never called, made a video call in the middle of the night, Paris time, to offer her best-friend opinion after Allison finally told her about Ted’s holiday from sex. “No sex? Are you kidding me?”

They’d done regular video chats since then, and one audio chat, during which Allison told her about Nick. She’d been afraid to do it face-to-face, not wanting to see disappointment, or even disgust, on Valeria’s face, but Valeria surprised her by telling her about rumblings in her own marriage. Ted would have to agree to go to therapy with Allison. She would do her part if he did his. If he forgave her when she told him what she’d done. There were a lot of “ifs.” There were no guarantees.

Allison went back home, to find Ted on the porch. He showed her the snowblower and she showed him Kaye’s artwork.

“I’m going to miss those guys,” Ted said.

Allison laughed. “You are?”

“No,” he admitted.

She sat beside him, joining him in watching the goings-on next door. A pickup truck pulled up. A man stepped out of the driver’s side, and got a sign out of the back. He hammered it into the ground in front of the Coxes’ house.

FOR SALE, the sign said, and there was Nina’s smiling face, in a photo Allison had taken.

The hammering stopped. And there was silence. The neighborhood had, for now, returned to silence.

Acknowledgments

So many people helped bring this book into the world! White-elephant-size thanks to one and all.

First, special thanks to my amazing agent, Suzanne Gluck, who somehow was unfazed by the fact that I inadvertently named all of my characters after members of her family and fulfilled thirty years’ worth of dreams. Equally special thanks to Megan Lynch, my fantastic editor, whose editing brilliance gave the book the extra shimmer it needed. You are my dream team. I could not be more grateful.