Chapter 11: Supper with Friends
Chapter 12: London
Chapter 13: Vapor Trails
Chapter 14: Body Parts
Chapter 15: Satellite
Chapter 16: Shards
Chapter 17: Harlequin
Chapter 18: Supper with Friends
Chapter 19: Robber Child
Chapter 20: Memory Box
Chapter 21: Cleave
Chapter 22: Paris
Chapter 23: Supper with Friends
Chapter 24: Paper Chains
Chapter 25: Fragments
Chapter 26: Family Album
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Discussion Questions
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For my beloved boy.
1 Supper with Friends Robyn
The match flares in the half-dark of our kitchen. As I lean toward the candles, light slips along the silver lines of the bowl that forms the centerpiece of the table. I stand back, making one final check of the linen, the glasses, the place settings, the eight mismatched chairs. Cat walks in.
“Okay,” she says, “the twins are asleep. Sophie’s in bed and reading. I’ve told her it’s fine to come down so long as she takes herself back up. What’s still to do?”
“We’re pretty much there. Make yourself a drink.”
“I’m saving myself for when Jamie gets here.”
“Don’t.”
“Last time he delivered us forty-five minutes on the engineering works between here and the coast. Remember? Forty-five sodding minutes. If he does that again, I’m feigning death.” My wife rummages in a drawer and pulls out a bottle opener. “I honestly don’t know what Willa sees in him.”
“He wants kids.”
“She’s well aware there’re other ways. Anyway, she’s got to want more than that—”
“It’s all she wants.”
“Basic compatibility for a start. I mean, why Jamie?”
“She’s thirty-eight. You know it’s a tricky subject.”
“Everything’s tricky—”
“Cat—”
“This was meant to be a family get-together. Sibs. It’s almost impossible to get Michael and Nate in London at the exact same time.”
“Willa’s practically family.”
“Uh-huh.”
“She’s been through so much.”
“Sure.” Cat gives me daggers, then just as quickly lets it go. “I know.”
