The Warmth We Owe

For the first time in years, Hyejin wants something she cannot fit around everyone else. At forty-nine, Hyejin Seo is good at feeding a crowded room and getting her family through an ordinary week. Catering a winter benefit at the Ashbourne house should be another demanding job. Then Catherine Ashbourne makes her laugh-and keeps noticing her after the plates are cleared. Once the work is finished and the final fee paid, the women begin meeting on their own time. A walk, a kiss, a private afternoon: each encounter gives Hyejin something she has missed without knowing how to ask for it. Each also leaves more unsaid at home. Her husband, Minho, is finding a life beyond his driving work. Her grown children have plans and wounds of their own. None of them has agreed to become the cost of her new happiness. When a false account of the benefit threatens Hyejin's livelihood and the workers who stayed late, she can set the business record straight. Telling the truth to the people she loves will demand something harder-and leave them free to choose what happens next.