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at Lexie.
    Lexie, ignoring her mother, buttered another piece of bread.
    “Darling, I bought that for James.”
    “You bought a whole loaf of herbed slab from Josie’s bakery not intending for me to have even one piece?” Lexie grabbed another slice before her mother could move the plate away.
    And in this way, as always, they entered the Lexie portion of the evening.
    Lexie could stage it, if it were a play. She could write out the words and block the action. She knew her mother would say things like “a little chubby, don’t you think?” and “no boy wants a girl to weigh more than he does.” Lexie knew she would respond with curt assents or dissents that Mira would pretend she hadn’t heard. The best part of the night would be when Mira stood, putting her hands flat against her belly. “Do you see this? Do you know how hard I work on this?” Lexie would barely prevent herself from snorting, thinking about the two tummy tucks her already-thin mother had gone through and the fact that food had always sickened Mira, no matter how much she liked to cook.
    Mira spent all her time worried about how she looked in the mirror. Lexie had spent years working on herself, on accepting her body as it was. As it looked good. As it wanted to be.
    And an hour in her mother’s house could put her right back to high-school-level mortification.
    Skipping this awful part of Friday night dinner was almost impossible, unless one had a grenade.
    She did.
    “I’m going on a date.”
    Mira choked on her sip of wine. “Darling! You’re kidding . Really?”
    “Well played,” James said in an admiring voice.
    “Oh, Lexie. I can’t believe it.” Mira pressed a shaky hand to her flat bosom. “Really? And I didn’t even set this one up for you! Are you serious?”
    It was going to be almost as bad as the weight conversation would have been, but at least it had novelty going for it. “I’m not just making it up, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    “Oh, no. Of course not. Who is it?”
    Crap. Lexie hadn’t thought this all the way through. “Just a guy. You don’t know him.” Lexie didn’t know him either. Coin was picking him. He had said he would come in to dispatch the following night and they’d vet each other’s online suggestions.
    “Not someone you work with, is it? Tell me that’s not true.”
    Lexie bristled. “I’m not stupid. It’s not. Completely not. He’s in … analysis. Computer. Graphics. Something.”
    “What a relief.” Mira arched an eyebrow at James, as if he would back her up on this one. “I never want you to lose a man the way I lost your father. No men in the line of fire.”
    Just out of Mira’s line of sight, James mimed cutting his wrists with his butter knife.
    “Moving on,” Mira said. “Tell me about this boy.”
    “Man.”
    “Man, then. Who is he? What does he look like?”
    How did she describe someone as yet imaginary? Lexie reached for another piece of bread, ignoring her mother’s wilting gaze. Worse, what if she was deluding herself? She hadn’t done online dating in a while—what if she’d run out of Darling Bay men to date? What if there was no one else out there, and she ended up paying for Coin to go to Bora Bora with a tiny blonde? “He’s medium.”
    “What does that mean? Is he tall?”
    Make something up. Anything . “Not really. Average. Well, pretty tall, I guess.”
    Mira leaned forward. “More. What color hair?”
    “Black. Kind of wavy.”
    “What else?”
    What would it have been like, if her mother had always been this interested in her? Like a girlfriend, like someone she could talk to? “Dark brown. His nose is slightly crooked, but it fits his face. Huge biceps. He’s quiet, but he’s funny. Kind of hysterical, actually. He makes me laugh, but I think a lot of people don’t really get him.” A flash of heat raced through her body as she realized she was describing Coin. She hadn’t meant to do that.
    “How many times have you seen