Chapter 4

On Thursday afternoon, a thirteen-year-old girl arrived at my house carrying a duffel bag.

Lily stood on the porch in a school hoodie, one earbud in, her dark hair pulled into a loose knot.

"Is my mom here?"

"No. Why would she be?"

Lily shifted the bag on her shoulder. "She said Ethan offered you guys' guest room."

For a second, I thought I had misunderstood.

"Offered it for what?"

"The pipe over our kitchen broke. The landlord says the wall has to dry out. Mom said we'd stay here for two weeks."

Behind me, Chloe heard Lily's voice and ran down the hall.

"Lily! You can sleep in my room!"

Lily managed a tired smile. "Hey, short stuff."

I moved aside and let her in.

She was a child standing on my porch with nowhere to put her bag.

Whatever Ethan had done was not her fault.

"You can wait here until we reach your mom," I said. "But I didn't know about the guest room."

Lily's face closed.

"Of course you didn't."

The answer came too fast.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing."

She took out her phone and typed with both thumbs.

Sarah arrived twenty minutes later.

Ethan's car pulled in behind hers.

They had come together from the hospital.

Sarah stepped through the door carrying two grocery bags and a small lamp shaped like a star.

"I brought Chloe's favorite night-light," she said. "I thought it might help if the girls share."

"Mom," Lily said. "I'm not sharing with a four-year-old."

"Just for two weeks. It could be fun."

Lily's mouth flattened before she answered.

Sarah heard ordinary teenage attitude; I saw a girl being told that her discomfort was the price of making her mother happy.

"For you, maybe."

Ethan put his keys in the bowl. "What's going on?"

"That's my question," I said. "Why did you offer our guest room without asking me?"

He glanced at Sarah.

"I thought I mentioned it."

"You didn't."

"The apartment has water damage. They need somewhere safe."

The grocery bags sat at Sarah's feet like the first pieces of a move already underway.

Everyone else had arrived prepared for a decision I had never been invited to make.

"And Sarah has family. Lily has a father. There are hotels."

Sarah set the groceries on the floor. "My sister's place is forty minutes from Lily's school. A hotel for two weeks is expensive. Ethan said you wouldn't mind."

She looked genuinely confused, which made my anger turn in a new direction.

"He was wrong."

Ethan's shoulders went stiff. "Maya."

"No. You don't get to volunteer my home and then use my name to make it sound agreed."

"Our home."

"Then both people who live here should decide."

Chloe stood beside the stairs, holding the railing.

I lowered my voice.

"Lily can stay tonight if she needs to. She's already here. But this is not a two-week plan."

"I can stay with Dad," Lily said. "Mom can stay here."

Sarah turned. "We are staying together."

"You weren't worried about that when you spent three nights here last week."

No one spoke.

I looked at Sarah. "Three nights?"

"Not overnight," she said quickly. "We had dinner. Ethan was working late and Chloe-"

"I was in Atlanta for one installation."

"She was missing you," Sarah said. "I helped."

Lily laughed once, with no humor in it.

"She always helps here."

Sarah's face changed. "Go wait in the car."

"Why? So you can talk about family without me again?"

"Lily. Car."

Lily grabbed her duffel and headed for the door.

I touched her arm. "You don't have to wait alone. You can sit in the living room."

She pulled away, not hard, but clearly.

"I'm fine."

The front door shut behind her.

Ethan waited until Chloe wandered toward the playroom.

"Happy now?" he asked me.

"You made that child believe her mother would rather live in our guest room without her. Don't put that on me."

"Sarah has been there for us every time you had a deadline. The one time she needs something, you slam the door."

Chloe had wandered close enough to hear our voices.

I lowered mine, though Ethan kept building his case out of every late wedding and every favor Sarah had offered.

"She was there because you were supposed to be."

"I have a job I can't just leave."

"And I have work you told me to take."

His eyes moved to the flower buckets near the pantry.

He did not need to insult my work directly; he only had to place it below his whenever responsibility became inconvenient.

"Flowers are not the same as patients."

Sarah stared at him.

I could have shouted. I could have listed every bride, funeral, anniversary, and family who had trusted me with a day they could not redo.

Instead, I looked at Sarah.

"Did he tell you I agreed?"

She hesitated. "He said it would be fine."

"That isn't what I asked."

"No. He didn't say you agreed."

Ethan stepped between us. "This is getting ridiculous."

"You're right," I said. "It is. Sarah, you and Lily cannot move in. Ethan, we will talk after Chloe is asleep."

Sarah picked up the groceries.

The star lamp remained on the floor.

"I'm sorry," she said.

I could not tell which part she meant.

She left with Lily.

Ethan followed them outside and stayed by Sarah's car for several minutes.

I carried the lamp to the kitchen counter.

Chloe came in rubbing one eye.

"Can Sarah come back?"

"Not tonight."

"My head hurts."

I touched her forehead.

She was hot enough that I pulled my hand back.

The thermometer read 104.1.