er was a

aos of a family trying to look like they hadn't been falling apart for months. Her mother had changed the flower arrangement in the e

ull preparation mode three dresses laid out on the bed, two different lipsticks open on the vanity, hair half done and already perfect. The

Madison w

efore Xavier Holt's name had even entered the conversation.

e," Nora had

, not looking away from the mirror. "The

reen i

o years," Madison said, still to the mirror. "All of them brunette. All of t

e particular complicated grief of watching someone want something very badly and knowing, already kn

't said

hair clip, and wen

te coming

ing room to already be arranged by the time she arrived, enough for the introductions to have happened, enough for

eyes before

dequately explain to anyone who hadn't experienced it the way his attention had physical weight. The

er current romance novel tucked under her arm because she'd been reading on the way downstairs and had forgot

oked extraordinary. The dress was right, the light was right, everything was exac

ked at her, and

e moved acro

on Nora whe

r she wasn't going to carry a romance novel t

unfolded her napkin, and reached for her water glass and told herself the war

a," said the man

the particular polish of someone who had spent decades i

," sh

aid. "I've heard a g

le," she sai

r with something that might have been appreciation if a

urces," Richard

, and took a si

r pro

r Holt at a dinner table to be the way he was in the study: precise, controlled, a man conducting a meeting rather than sharing a meal. And he wa

luently, asking Xavier questions that were really answers, performi

measured courtesy of a man who was pr

had been mostly qui

tors her father had mentioned, some observation that connected two things in a way that

ed, then Xavie

easured courtesy look. This ti

than before, like he'd turned a page and found

eresting point

ora said. "Someon

s always been the one who says

t she something, this unpredictable sister of mine, you never know what she'll say next. It was perfectly don

difficult. She's

and reached

still loo

her, in that low unhurried voice that made the room pay attentio

went sligh

her one,"

this morning back at her. She wondered if he knew she'd

s," she said. "People do. It's no

mily's position don't t

eople in my fam

raction of a shift, a degree of change so small it shouldn

ed away

glass. Took a measured s

ce and the eyes doing something entirely different cataloguing, calculating, the patient

ked up h

e her

n it had just realized something about the heroine in a room full of people,

the way Xavier Holt ha

ut it for the r