A grin broke across his face. “I like you a lot, too.”
“And I want to keep dating. Even after we leave Nantucket. I want to stay together, if you want to, too.” I braced myself.Because while I knew it was the right thing to do, to say what I wanted, this was the part where the heartbreak usually came.
But Ethan Barbanel, he didn’t miss a beat. “Cool,” he said. “Because I’ve been thinking. I don’t want to bombard you or anything, but it’s Rosh Hashanah in a few weeks, and the fam plans to do it in New York. If you and your dad want to come. And then Noah says the regatta weekend in Cambridge in October is kinda fun. I could come to Boston then. And in November I’ll have a whole week off for Thanksgiving.”
“Well, look at you.” A grin broke over my face. “Trying to make plans to date me or something.”
“Yeah, you know, I’m organized like that.” He leaned forward and kissed me.
A little later, when night had fully fallen and the waning gibbous moon shone bright among the scattered stars, Cora sat down next to me. “Look what I got an email of.” She turned her phone toward me.
I leaned in. An article with Cora’s name on it filled the screen. I recognized the first paragraph immediately; I’d certainly proofed it enough. “No way! The Harvard Computers article?”
She grinned and nodded. “This is the preview. They’re going to run it in the October issue. If you give me your school address, I’ll send you a copy.”
My school address. “I can’t believe I’m going to college after this.” I gazed up at the night. “It feels so…weird. I can’t wait, but also I can’t imagine what it’ll be like.”
“I hope you’ll love it,” Cora said. “And, selfishly, I hope you’ll stay interested in astrophysics.”
I smiled a little shyly. “I’m taking Physics 1 and the first-year astronomy seminar.”
“Really?” She did a little cheer. “That’s great!”
“Yeah.” I ducked my head. “I wanted to thank you—it’s meant a lot to me, this summer, working for you. I learned a lot.”
Cora gave my arm a squeeze. “I loved having you. You contributed a lot, too. You have tons of passion.”
For a moment, we sat there in companionable silence, watching the partygoers mingling, drinking their blue and purple cocktails, peering through the telescope to catch a glimpse of the comet making its once-every-four-decades pass through our skies.
“Hey.” Cora turned back toward me, her voice suddenly decisive. “How would you feel if I asked your dad out?”
I swear, my eyes bulged out of my head like a cartoon character’s. “Oh my god, are you serious?Thank you.”
She grinned. “I’m not sure ‘thanks’ was the response I was going for, but it seems positive.”
“Yes. Yes! Definitely!” Oh my god. This was possibly more thrilling than anything else this summer.
“Wow, okay,” Cora said, laughing slightly. “A yes, then.”
“Sucha yes. The strongest yes.”
When she left, I made a beeline for Ethan, pulling him away from a circle of family friends. “Guess. What.”
“Uh…The people who control comets’ names have acknowledged you’re right and brilliant and formally changed the name?”
“Cora wants to ask out my dad!”
His eyes widened. “Really?”
“Yes. She just told me.” Holding Ethan’s arm, I swiveled both of us, searching the crowd until I found Cora. “Watch.”
“She’s probably not going to do it right now.”
“Maybe she is,” I said. “Cora’s a go-getter.”
Sure enough, Cora made her way to my dad. For a minute, they chatted and laughed, looking impossibly more at ease than they’d looked several weeks ago. Then, for a moment, neither of them said anything. Cora looked away, hands twisting behind her back, before stilling completely. Then she faced Dad and spoke.
His head whipped up, a look of astonishment on his face, which slowly suffused with color. He pointed a finger at himself, and I clutched Ethan’s shoulder.
