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said. She looked grim. “It didn’t do any good. Ari just went ballistic, shouting that I’m a terrible mother. Maybe I am.”
    “You’re a great mother,” Nicole said.
    “I don’t know what I am,” Mimi said. “Ari thinks I’m some kind of monster.”
    “You are not,” Nicole said, “any kind of a monster.”
    “It was the worst fight we’ve ever had,” Mimi said. “We said things neither of us will ever forget.”
    Nicole wondered if she should ask about those things, but she wasn’t sure she could stand to hear them. Jay was always so gentle with her, so loving. The worst fight they’d ever had was over some ice cream he’d eaten when she was pregnant. Jay had finished the last of it and put the empty carton back in the freezer—like a little kid. She’d thrown the carton at him. He’d gone out and bought some more. End of story.
    “If you feel like talking about any of it, I’m here,” Nicole said. “You know that.”
    “Thanks, sweetie,” Mimi said. “It was bad enough hearing it once.” She leaned down and did something to the back of Rianna’s infant seat that made it bounce lightly back and forth. The baby looked more startled than pleased. Her arms and legs went straight out in the air. “Rianna woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep,” she added. “I ended up sleeping on the nursery floor. None of us got much rest except Julian. He could sleep through an earthquake.”
    Nicole looked more closely. Rianna had bags under her baby eyes, like a little old lady. Her cheeks sagged. Her head was nodding, but she was fighting to stay awake. Mimi didn’t look much better.
    “You want that whiskey now?” Nicole asked. She went over to the liquor cabinet to see what was inside. Not much. A few bottles of wine that Ari had given them, a dusty bottle of rum she used for baking, and a quarter of a bottle of brandy.
    “I have to work today. I owe a new comedy routine to that guy out in Hollywood. The least funny man on earth. At least he’s living in the right place.—I’ll take a glass of cold water, though.”
    Nicole went to the fridge and poured some into a blue glass.
    “Don’t give up on us,” Mimi said. “That’s what I really came to say.—Ari might change his mind back. You know how he is. He just got scared when Julian was so sick. He went nuts. But he loves you. Your cousin is not a bad guy.”
    “Of course he’s not,” Nicole said. She gazed down into the glass of water, as if it were a cup of tea leaves, as if she could read her fortune there.
    Mimi smiled wearily. “I may be trying to convince myself,” she said. “I don’t know for sure
what
kind of a guy he is anymore. But I’m so sorry, Nikki, about the delay. I know you need to move forward.”
    “I had set up the TBI consult appointment for next week,” Nicole admitted. Now she wished she’d made the appointment the minute Ari had handed her that letter. She had to fight against a rising tide of panic.
    “Can you push it back a couple of weeks?” Mimi asked. “I hate to ask…”
    “Of course I can,” Nicole said. She put one hand on Mimi’s back. The solid touch was comforting, it steadied her for a second. “Stop worrying so much.”
    “Yeah. Good luck to that.” Mimi fiddled with the buckles on the infant seat and lifted Rianna with a groan. “I’m too old to be the mother of a little baby,” she said. “What was I thinking?”
    Nicole fought down her own jealousy. She had always wanted two children. A pair. She worried about Daisy being lonely for the rest of her life. Especially now. So much more now. “You probably weren’t. Thinking,” she said.
    “Well, help me get her into those pink booties,” Mimi said. “It’s a two-person operation.”
    Once Rianna was strapped and wrapped again, Mimi hesitated at the door. “I’ll move him along as fast as I can,” Mimi said. “But you know Ari. If you push too hard, he digs his heels in. And everything