Pretending to Dance

Molly and her husband, Aidan, want to adopt a baby. A young pregnant girl who wants to give her child up thinks that they may be the couple to become her baby's parents. But though Molly knows that she wants this baby, she is also unsure about being an adoptive mother. Her past looms close and hides a secret that she fears will unhinge not only this adoption but possibly her marriage. Alternating chapters tell the story of Molly's life during the summer she turned 14 in her small North Carolina town, juxtaposed with chapters about her life today as a lawyer in San Diego. She was raised in a loving family with a pharmacist mother and a therapist father with multiple sclerosis. That summer, Molly befriends a new girl who introduces her to an older boy, and subsequently drugs and sex. When a devastating event occurs and her beloved father dies, Molly is unable to reconcile the actions of her family. She is unable to trust them and leaves them behind, first for boarding schools and then for her adult life in San Diego. It is only her fear that the past is beginning to influence her present that pushes her to deal with those earlier events.