"It's not because you told. You did exactly the right thing when you told. You hear me? Exactly the right thing." His voice wavered and he steadied it. "I did a wrong thing. I asked you to keep a secret from Mommy, and that was wrong of me. I should never have asked you that. Grown-ups aren't supposed to ask kids to keep secrets from their moms. Not ever. That was my mistake, not yours. And Mommy is upset because of things I did, not things you did. Okay?"
Ivy considered this, her small brow furrowed under the dish towel. "What things did you do?"
Matt glanced at Renée. Renée looked back at him and did not help.
"I spent a lot of time with Miss Lauren when I should have been thinking about Mommy," he said slowly. "And I didn't tell Mommy about it. And when you love somebody and you're married to them, that's not okay. It hurts their feelings really bad. And I'm very sorry."
"Did you say sorry to Mommy?"
"Yes. But sometimes sorry isn't enough right away. Sometimes it takes a long time."
Ivy looked at her mother. "How long?"
Renée turned around too, so that both of them were facing her, two adult faces hovering in the blue dark of the car, and she thought about what she could possibly say that would be true.
"I don't know, baby," she said. "Maybe a long time. But you know what I do know? We both love you more than anything in the world. That part's not changing. That part's not even a little bit in trouble."
Ivy nodded slowly. She looked down at the stuffed lamb in her lap. Then she said, in a very small voice, "I liked the cardigan. Is that bad?"
"No," Renée said. "It was beautiful. It's okay that you liked it."