“Delicious, you have to give me the recipe?”

“So then Rowen took his pants off in the soap aisle.”

“Hey, how’s Gwen doing?”

Suddenly all talk at the baby shower stopped. Confused Ally looked around. Pastel balloons floated in the corner, a diaper cake with pink and blue ribbons sat surrounded by gifts, and all the other guests avoided eye contact with her. She gave a nervous laugh.

“What’s the tea?” Ally said. “Wait she’s okay, right? Did something happen?”

“Oh no, Gwen’s fine. She just doesn’t come around as much,” Elle said.

Suddenly, Pratibha got up and fiddled with the hors oeuvres. Mom-to-be Samantha stared down at her cocktail plate. Ally looked from face to face.

“He bites,” Samantha said.

The handful of friends had all met years ago at a baby yoga class. The yoga instructor had been absymal and they ditched en masse to the donut shop. They took turns hosting each other at their houses.

“Little Henry?”

“You’ve been busy the last few get-togethers. Henry bites. It started with his sister, I guess. But we didn’t know. We were at the library for storytime when we heard screaming,” Elle said.

“Well kids bite. It is perfectly normal,” Ally H

“Henry was forcing Rowan down snapping at my kid’s throat,” Elle continued.

“Henry attacked Geoffrey at the park. Fast, too fast, he came out of nowhere and latched on to Geoffrey’s arm with his teeth. It took three of us to pull Henry off,“ Pratibha said.

“We ran into them at the market,” Samantha said.

Samantha pushed up her sleeve to show an angry half-moon scar. One by one, Ally looked at the haunted faces of her friends. She could tell there was more story behind their eyes. Pratibha started collecting plates. Samantha hugged herself. Pushing aside pink and blue streamers, Elle hurried from the living room.

“Who’s ready for cake?” Pratibha said brightly before bursting into tears.