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Kate. She needs you to be there tonight to show your support and to give her a proper send-off.”
    “I can’t,” Clare whispered, remembering the emotional exchange with Jack earlier in the week. “I just can’t .”
    Anna stood up. “Fine. You do what you have to do, but you’ll regret this, Clare. You’ll regret disappointing her.”
    After her mother left the room, Clare sat back and fumed. How dare she? What does she know about it? What does anyone know about it? Clare nurtured her anger for several minutes until, all at once, the fury subsided and she was swamped with remorse. Her mother was right. She was being childish and thinking only of herself when her daughter needed her. She went into the family room to find her mother.
    “The party’s at seven. We’ll leave a little before.”
    “That’s fine,” Anna said.
     
    Clare and her mother drove through the gates at Jack’s house just after seven. The girls had gone over earlier to help with party preparations. The house was alive with lights and electric candles in every window. Clare parked her car across the driveway from where a small U-Haul sat with Kate’s yellow Volkswagen Beetle attached to the back. Clare’s grip on the steering wheel tightened when she was hit by a new burst of anxiety.
    “Are you all right?” Anna asked.
    Clare was finding it hard to breathe. “Sure.”
    “You’re doing this for Kate,” Anna reminded her. “Keep that in mind.”
    “Yes, for Kate.” Clare exhaled a long deep breath. “Let’s go.”
    They carried birthday gifts as they crossed the driveway to the stone stairs. Clare rang the bell and heard the chimes echo inside the big house—Jack and Andi’s house. You’re doing this for your daughter .
    Kate answered the door. “Mom! You came!” She drew them into the foyer. “Hi, Gram.”
    “Happy birthday, sweetheart,” Anna said with a hug for her granddaughter.
    Kate sparkled with excitement. “Thanks. Let me take your coats.”
    Clare stole a quick glance around the 1930s-era house. She’d been inside it once before, the last time it was on the market when the listing agent held an open house for other Realtors. At that time, it had been empty and devoid of life, but now the home pulsed with the warmth and energy brought by a family.
    She looked up at the elaborate crystal chandelier that hung from the second floor over the black-and-white tiled foyer. A staircase ascended from right to left, framed by a mahogany banister. To the right, Clare remembered a great room that stretched the width of the house. A formal dining room was to the left, and the kitchen was at the end of a hallway under the stairs.
    Jack came through the hallway as Kate took their coats. He wore a black cashmere sweater with jeans, and as usual he managed to look casual and elegant at the same time.
    He hugged and kissed them both. “Come on in,” he said, ushering them into the great room where a fire burned in the fireplace. The room’s fifteen-foot ceilings were edged with elaborate mahogany crown molding. Smaller moldings framed the butter-colored walls. The far end of the room was an expanse of glass, and Clare recalled an exquisite ocean view during the day.
    Furniture was artfully arranged into two sitting areas by the fire. Tables were laden with food, and a bar had been set up in the far corner. Clare knew Andi had been a decorator at the Infinity Group’s corporate headquarters in Chicago before she moved to Rhode Island to live with Jack and manage Infinity’s Newport hotel. Clearly, she hadn’t lost her flare for her previous profession. The room was warm and inviting.
    “Your home is lovely, Jack,” Anna said. “You’ve been busy.”
    “We had the party as an incentive to get settled quickly. Upstairs is still a disaster area. Boxes everywhere.”
    Kate handed her mother a beer and her grandmother a glass of wine and went to answer the door again. She returned a few minutes later with Jack’s sister