Kate answered, wearing a pair of worn black leggings and an oversized T-shirt. On the front porch, she squeezed past a freestanding clown/ punching bag and knocked on the door. The shingled house, built in the twenties for a wealthy lumber baron’s weekends, wore a new, crisp coat of caramel-hued stain bright glossy white trim outlined the mullioned windows, beneath which were flower boxes filled with the last blooming geraniums of the season.

As she picked her way through the bikes and skateboards and action figures strewn across the gravel path, she couldn’t help admiring how homey this place was, even at this time of year. Tully parked her Mercedes in front of the garage and got out. Leaves lay strewn everywhere, multicolored splashes hung on dying roses. Now, in the midst of a cold, gray November’s day, every plant looked leggy and brown. All those plants still thrived in the short, hot blast of a Northwest summer, though, returning year after year as reminders of an earlier time, growing up and out and into one another, just like the family that lived in the house. Months outside, planting bulbs and perennials, with her babies in blankets on the grass around her, and over the years, as those kids had grown up and chosen their own summer pursuits, the time for gardening had been lost. My days of being your Jiminy Cricket are long past.” “No more life-is speeches, huh? Great. Tully’s such a big personality it’s easy to forget her background and how easily she can be hurt.” “ So what do I do?” “Only you can answer that. And then you stand by to pick up the pieces. I was trying to be a good friend.” “Sometimes being a good friend means saying nothing.” “ I’m just supposed to watch her make a mistake?” “Sometimes, yes. So what do I do? She is avoiding me completely. Focus, Mom.” “ I’m just saying-” “I heard you.

Always there was the subtle-and not so subtle- pressure to be like Tully. It wouldn’t hurt you to have a little of that fire, by the way.” Kate rolled her eyes. She’s missing out on college life.” “ Did you really think Tully would be your average sorority girl? Come on, Katie. “ He’s all wrong for her, Mom.” “Your vast experience with men tells you this?” “She didn’t go to the last dance because he didn’t want to. “ Is there more?” “No,” she said quickly. If Mom found out Chad’s age, she’d blow a gasket and Tully would really be pissed if she thought Kate had turned Mom against her. “What did she tell you?” “That you don’t like her boyfriend.” “ That’s all?” Kate had to be careful.

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