“Pacifiers and walkers."

“Diapers and Depends.”

Shelley laughed. "You win."

“And the prize is a nap," Jane said, heading for the kitchen door. "I have to do a big family dinner, attend the graduation, then stay up all night as chaperone at—"

“Oh!" Shelley exclaimed. She rattled the newspaper pages. "Look at this!"

“What? Hold it still!"

“There. Right there. Under 'Divorces Filed.' Rhonda against Robert Stonecipher. Filed the day before yesterday. The day before she was widowed!”

A car was coming up the street and pulled into Jane's driveway. Suzie Williams got out and moved toward them like a warship under full sail, her platinum hair shining in the sunlight. Her face fell when she saw the shopping paper. "No! You've already seen it, haven't you?" she asked, prodding with a long, scarlet fingernail at the newspaper in Shelley's hands. "I thought for once in my life I might get ahead of Gossip Central. Damn!”

Shelley was still staring at the paper. "Filing for divorce the day before he died! Talk about feeling guilty."

“Guilty, hell," Suzie scoffed. "Think of the relief. You aren't the kind of Pollyanna who believes you divorce a bad-tempered lawyer and come out of it with anything but your second-best underwear, do you? Take it from somebody who's been there, done that, and got the T-shirt to prove it. But with him dying, there's no alimony, no nasty little settlements. She just walks with the whole wad.”

Jane almost missed her nap. There was no way she could sleep without thrashing out this news. First she called Mel, who said curtly that he already knew about the divorce and would she please mind her own business and stay out of it.

“I think I've blighted my evening," Jane said, hanging up.

“An evening of chaperoning high school graduates is blighted by definition."