“Mmm,” Allison echoed. “Listen to that.”

“What?”

“Silence. Do you hear that? The silence between the songs. It’s like the white space on the page.”

Suzanne wasn’t sure what she meant, but it sounded nice. The white space. Was it about seeing positives where there were negatives? Or vice versa? She took a cookie from the tray. “I like your shawl,” she said, fingering the fringe.

“I made it. I have a loom.”

“You made it? All I make are appointments.”

Allison laughed.

“What made you think my mother died?” Ted was asking Grant when they came back to the table.

“Nina Strauss told us. When we saw you in the road the day we were house hunting,” Grant said.

“Nina!” Ted and Allison said, as one. “You can’t trust Nina.”

“My mother died before Jillian was born . . . ,” Ted said.

Grant and Suzanne looked at each other, Suzanne wondering what else Nina had lied about.

“That was the day Nick Cox cut down the trees,” Ted said, his voice low, nearly biblical in tone.

“Oh!” Allison said. “Don’t bring up the trees!”

They all were silent for several seconds, as though giving the trees the moment of respect they were due.

“Have you met Nick Cox?” Ted said.

“No,” Suzanne said.

“He cut down the tree we planted for Jillian. It wasn’t even on his property. I should sue him. You’re a lawyer. Do you think I should sue him?” Ted asked Grant.

“Ted’s obsessed with that tree,” Allison said.

“I’m not obsessed,” Ted said.

“Does this Cox have a gold SUV?” Grant said.

“The only one in town.”

“I think he’s the guy I met at the hardware store. Buying a grill.”

“Someone delivered a grill to our house by mistake the other day,” Suzanne said. Grant looked up sharply, then down again.

“That’s the Coxes’ house,” Allison said, pointing next door.

“That house and the one over there. The White Elephant. Rumor has it that it’s going to have a racquetball court,” Ted said.

“How about that, Grant?” Suzanne said. It was a joke between them. He refused to play after Suzanne beat him a couple of times when they were dating.

“The new house he’s building?” Ted said. “It’s so close to our house, you can nearly touch it. I stood on the edge of the yard and reached out a broom handle. I got within inches.”

“You did?” Grant said.

“It’s getting out of control. There has to be some way of getting those fat cats out of here. Get the town to reconsider letting them build these huge things,” Ted said.

“Do the other neighbors feel the way you do?”

“Most of them. No question. What’s in it for them?”

“Higher property values, I’d guess,” Grant said.

“I think it’ll lower them. People move to Willard Park to get away from all that,” Ted said.

“Yeah?”

“You want to live in a big house, move to Potomac.”

Grant seemed to make a mental note.