Mikey broke into a huge smile. “Yes?”
“Well... she said ‘yes and.’”
“Like in improv?”
“It was more like ‘yes but.’”
“But what?”
“But she thinks it’s a bad idea.”
“Why?”
Cary shrugged. “The obvious reasons. That we can’t live together. That she has kids and it’s complicated. That we haven’t ever dated.”
“Those are good reasons.”
Cary nodded. “Great reasons. Smart girl.”
“But she saidyes...” Mikey said, like he was making sure that he got it.
“She said yes,” Cary confirmed.
“Because she’s crazy about you.” Mikey grinned again. “And always has been.”
Cary smiled. It felt like the first real smile he’d allowed himself tonight. “I think that might be true.”
Mikey jumped off the couch to hug him.
Sixty-Three
“Are we going to talk about what I saw last night?” Tom was waiting for Shiloh when she sat down at her desk.
“No,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow above the frame of his glasses. “Because itlookedlike—”
Tom must have seen something alarming on her face. He stopped.
“Ohh-kay,” he said. “I guess we’re reallynotgoing to talk about it.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll just trust that you would tell me if you were, you know, suddenly engaged to a handsome sailor.”
“That does seem like the sort of thing I would tell you...”
“It does, doesn’t it?”
Cary sent her a text.“I can come for dinner, if that still works?”
“yeah, come over—i get home at 5:30”
Shiloh hadn’t planned anything for dinner. She had fresh tomatoes and bacon. She stopped for bread on the way to daycare.
“Guess who’s coming to dinner?” she asked the kids.
“Who?” Junie asked, already overcome with surprise.
