“What?”

Serena looked at Liza with familiar eyes. “My mother’s here. She’s at the Winthrops’.”

Chapter 19

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Raj walked straight to Tricia and opened his arms. The pair were the same height, so Tricia nuzzled her head into Raj’s neck. He ran his hand down her back, pulling her in tighter. Tonight she’d worn this long blue dress, soft and flowing with a slit up the front because Maggie had insisted she “get out of those sad white jeans.” Raj couldn’t take his eyes off her and her strong, slim shoulders, her tan legs. They had been together for five nights now, but it felt like five years.

They followed their night in the rowboat with dinner at the waterfront place in Westport, sharing their life stories with each other. Tricia told Raj about her mother, why she started running and what kept her running, and her doomed relationship with Blair and losing the baby. Raj told stories about his two sisters, his brother, and his million “cousins” in their extended Indian family in Maryland. The lines blurred between when the talking stopped and the touching began. The last three days, they had done everything together but archive.

Raj was in love. He had felt a strong attraction since their first meeting and debated the ethics of it in his mind for weeks before Tricia knocked on the door of the boathouse. She wasn’t a colleague or a client. He wasn’t her boss, nor she his. She was simply somebody’s daughter, and that shouldn’t pose a professional problem, he decided. Once he had settled the question in his mind, he moved forward in the only way he knew how, by connecting intellectually. He admired Tricia’s strategic mind, her confidence, and her dry sense of humor. And the long curve of her back, the way her small gold

hoops looked in her earlobes, the scent of her skin after a sail. It had only been five days, but Raj didn’t want to let Tricia go.

Tricia felt the same way, but her emotions were complicated. Was this part of the grieving process? Or was this the relationship she’d been waiting to find her whole life? It seemed too good to be true and in Tricia’s limited romantic experience, if that was the case, heartbreak was around the corner.

Raj was thoughtful, well-read, and comfortable in his own beautiful skin.

He was competent on all fronts, from his professional tasks to ordering in restaurants to tracing her cheekbones in exactly the right way. Tricia saw competency as an aphrodisiac. She hoped whatever this was with Raj wasn’t a product of heightened emotions, but the real deal. She had to think that her father had a hand in this, befriending Raj at the library, bringing him to Willow Lane, offering the boathouse to him for the summer. Her father had never been that generous with any research assistant or grad student before. But Tricia wanted to believe Raj was for her.

Raj let go of her. “Quite an after-dinner speech. That was unexpected.”

Tricia shook her head. “Poor Nina and Devon. They got the full Sweeney Show. Are your friends appalled or thrilled?”

“Both. But mainly they are terrified, because Cap told us in the most gentlemanly way possible that he would sue us to kingdom come if we told a soul about Serena. I thought he was going to throw our phones into the Long Island Sound. He’s a very good lawyer. I’m not sure we should even be keeping company.”

“Oh, is that what we’re doing?”

They kissed, because they couldn’t get enough of each other. Tricia wanted the entire mess to go away—the book, the estate, Serena—and escape with Raj to some sort of seaside bungalow in Maine or the Cape where they could have sex, do the New York Times crossword puzzle together, and sit on a porch overlooking the water in the evening, drinking wine and fantasizing about going to bed early. But it was because of the mess that she’d found Raj, so she knew she had to stay. She kissed him deeper and then whispered, “Lock the door.”

“Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent. This night needs some kind of spectacular nightcap.”

Liza headed toward the kitchen. She was always on the cleanup crew at every event, and Willow Lane was where she learned to finish the job.

Somebody would have to do the dishes tonight and her guess was that Maggie had already ditched the party with Tim. Or Gray. But she heard talking, laughing, and dishwasher loading happening down the hall. She peeked through the door to see Maggie was organizing leftovers, David and Connor were busing dishes and making jokes, and Devon and Nina were washing pots and pans. For once, it was good not to be needed. Liza took the dogs outside through the French doors onto the slate patio.

Gray was there, straightening up the porch furniture. “There you are.”

“Here I am.” Liza looked at Gray because he was something to look at.

She had watched him all night long, sipping sparkling water as he talked to David about design and Nina and Devon about their program in comparative literature, genuinely interested in their stories. He wandered over and helped Tim with the grill and pulled out the chair for Liza when she went to sit down at the table. The Gray who broke her heart never put others first. This new Gray was humble.

He reached down to pet Jack, then smiled at Liza as he said, “Is it true?

What Maggie said.”

“As far as we know. DNA tests and all.”

“How did that happen?”

It was such an obvious question, it made Liza laugh. “Believe it or not, we don’t really know. I mean, beyond the birds and the bees bit. Serena wasn’t ready to get the specifics from her mother yet, and we only found out a few days after my father’s death about Serena. It’s all new to us.

Maybe the memoir will tell us.”

“Are you okay with it?”

“I don’t have a choice,” Liza answered, then changed her mind.

“Actually, I do have a choice and I’m fine with it. I’m letting go of a lot of things these days and perfection is one of them. Could be a messy family tree isn’t the worst thing in the world. Could be it’s the way life goes.”

Gray took a step closer, until he was face-to-face with Liza. “And is that a new Liza thing?”

“Could be.” Liza wasn’t stepping away. She could feel the linen of Gray’s shirt against her arm. She had to admit, it had been a long time since she’d felt electric physical attraction. Years, in fact. She and Whit had regular physical contact, but it wouldn’t fall into the hot-and-bothered

category. Liza knew a spark was missing and in the middle of the night, when she lay awake thinking about Whit’s leaving, she rationalized that it was 90 percent about sex and 10 percent about emotion. Feeling this, feeling something like what she felt right now, was intoxicating. She lifted up her chin to Gray.

Gray kissed her. It wasn’t the careless kiss of her teenaged years that she remembered. It was deeper, stronger, more mature by all measures. Gray’s rough hands slipped down Liza’s bare back as she leaned into his body. He still made her feel reckless. She wanted to be ready for this, but she wasn’t.

Slowly, she pulled away. “I’m sorry.”

“No need for that.” Gray smoothed her hair, letting his fingers linger on her neck. “I know it’s probably too soon after Whit leaving and all.”

“What?”

“Too soon. Rebounds are never a great idea. I should have waited.”

“How did you know about Whit?”

Gray shrugged. “Ran into a couple of his squash buddies at the gym.

They mentioned that you two had split.”

Liza paused and breathed deeply. Whit had lied to her. He had planned this and told his pals at the Racket Club it was happening. And they told their pals. The man who thought photos of art openings in the local paper was too much publicity was wandering all over town announcing to people that his marriage was over. Liza ran through the timeline in her mind. He must have told these people before he had informed his own wife. Liza could hear Tricia’s voice in her head, “Control the flow of information and you control the situation.”

Liza had lost and she was humiliated. “I wasn’t aware that our separation was public knowledge. This is news to me. I need a minute.”

“Oh. Now, I’m sorry. Liza, I didn’t know that you didn’t know.”

“How could you? Not your job to know about me. I don’t know what I was thinking out here. I am a mess. Please, excuse me.” She called to the dogs and went inside. She needed to wrap her head around the fact that her failure was out there in the world for all to see. She thought about all the familiar faces who’d be at the gallery tomorrow night, people that she and Whit had known their whole lives. Neighbors. Classmates. His parents.

Whit had hightailed it out of town and she was stuck holding the truth.