7 October Anika arrived with a drill, two apples and a black eye painted on one thumbnail. “It’s watching you,” she said when she caught Maren looking. “So you don’t say we can just add another building.” “I wasn’t going to.” “Good. One of these apples is yours.” Maren took the apple. She had brought …
6 October “You brought the unfinished one,” Simon Vale said, and Maren had to remind herself that the pleasure in his voice was about the model. He came around the table to take the cake carrier. Up close, his blue eyes were less intimidating than his company website, although the smile was going to be …
“Maren, I’m divorcing you, not asking you to ruin my career… you promised you’d finish those windows before any of this happened with Joanna.” Blake set his keys beside the little cardboard bakery she had made after dinner. One slid down the roof and took the chimney with it. Maren caught the chimney before it …
On March 27, Celia discovered that her wedding dress had pockets. She had known it when she bought it. The knowledge had vanished during the ordinary business of moving her books, learning where Adrian kept things and deciding that half the things did not need to remain there. Now she put her hands into the …
Nell greeted their return on January 17 by gripping Celia’s collar and refusing to look at her. “That’s fair,” Celia said. “I also feel strongly about breakfast.” Ruth handed over the bag of clean clothes and the smaller bag of everything that had failed to remain clean. Adrian took both before Celia could try carrying …
The room had a bathtub large enough to make Celia laugh. “That,” she said, standing in the doorway on January 16, “is an irresponsible amount of bathtub.” Adrian put their bag down. “I thought you’d approve.” “I approve so much I’m suspicious.” The inn stood above a small sheltered harbor, close enough to Saltmere that …
By four o’clock on Christmas Eve, the wrapping paper had defeated every plan Celia had made for the apartment. It lay beneath the table, over one chair and across the radiator, where Adrian had put it for a second and forgotten it. A narrow piece clung to his sock. Nell watched from her bouncer with …
On December 19, Celia stood at the front of the community center’s small meeting room and realized she had brought the wrong glasses. They were her sunglasses. She had put them in the case beside her reading glasses and grabbed the case without checking. On any other afternoon the discovery would have been merely inconvenient. …
The first call came while Celia was trying to fasten Nell’s coat. The second came while she was listening to the first. “It was on my sheet,” the school secretary said. “Eleven. We’ve got the children ready.” On December 16, the bus was not at the school. It was parked outside the community center, where …
Quentin was early. Celia saw him from the window at twelve minutes to two on December 13, standing beside his car with a gift bag in one hand. He looked up at the building, then down at his phone. She stepped back before he could see her. “He’s here,” she told Ruth. Her sister glanced …
