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it out, not until the next morning.
    She said, “I don’t know how they can live out here.”
    “It’s only by God’s healing grace.”
    Jenna didn’t reply. She adored her brother. He was fun, intelligent, hardworking, and endearingly Tigger-like in his enthusiasm. But sometimes his pat answers drove her up the wall. He resembled Rosie, but his scarlet letter was less a C for Christian than a G for Got It All Figured Out.
    They reached the highway. At last the headlamp beams picked up some tall leafy trees, evidence of the fire’s hopscotch pattern.
    “Thanks for the ride,” she said. “I didn’t want to wait for Erik and Rosie. They were so wound up, they could be there half the night. Isn’t it great to see him sober?”
    He grinned. “Yeah. He actually seems to enjoy hanging out with the fam now too.”
    “Speaking of the fam, did you hear Skylar refer to us Beaumonts as the Cleavers from Leave It to Beaver ?” Jenna had insisted Skylar join them for dessert. Her mom’s no-kitchen rule wasn’t going to fly. Guests would want to meet the chef.
    She said, “The perfect TV family. Isn’t that wild? Just wait until she gets to know us.”
    “It seems like we should get to know her first.” Disapproval laced Danny’s tone.
    In the glow from the dashboard, Jenna saw his frown. She recalled his standoffish demeanor as they all ate Skylar’s luscious raspberry crisp. “You have a problem with her.”
    He shrugged. “The circumstances are just too plain weird. There’s just something about her . . . It doesn’t quite add up.”
    “Danny, that’s not like you. You’re the one with a faith as big as Nana’s, which to most people sounds just too plain weird. Honestly, when we were little kids, I knew this. I’d even ask you to pray for me before recitals. Remember? You’d grab my hand and start right in. ‘O Lord! Have mercy on my big sister. She didn’t practice her piano enough!’” She chuckled. “You were so cute, but I never dared tell my friends what you did.”
    “I still pray for you. And Kevin.”
    “I know. Thanks.” She didn’t want to go down that road. “About Skylar. She reminds me of kids who stay out on the fringe of things. They sort of sit back and observe, not sure how to fit in.”
    “As Erik and Kevin would say, you are a princess. You’re beautiful, smart, and always wear the right clothes. Those kids on the fringe don’t want to fit in. For whatever reason, they’re anti-everything. Skylar was mocking us, Jen. The Cleavers were hopelessly unreal, television fluff.”
    “I don’t agree. She told me she doesn’t have a family. She never knew her dad. Her mom OD’d on prescription drugs and died when Skylar was eighteen. She couldn’t afford college. I think Skylar knows we’re not perfect, but we have each other, just like the Cleavers.”
    “Princess.”
    “Boy Scout.”
    They rode in silence for a while. The city lay below them now, a vast sea of sparkles. Beyond them, blackness swallowed the ocean.
    Danny lived near the ocean and surfed daily, whatever the season. Despite his scarlet G , he got along with everyone there from beach bum to tourists who paid for surfing lessons through the shop he owned with his roommate. His main business was software design, which meant he got along with straitlaced business-type clients too.
    “Danny, I don’t get you sometimes. You were the first one to accept Tuyen and her crazy story about Uncle BJ living in Vietnam for years after being declared MIA. I still catch myself holding back with her.”
    “Only because you’re afraid that Keven might repeat our uncle’s history—go overseas to fight a war and be declared MIA, only to discover years later that he fell in love with someone else over there and had a child with her.”
    Jenna flipped her hand, dismissing his ridiculous opinion. “Whatever. And speaking of Kevin, you welcomed him from the start too. He was basically without a family since they all lived so