“You think I wasn’t going to have to change the sheets before just now?”
When they were done eating, she stacked their dishes under the bedside table.
Cary wanted her to sleep without her shirt. He wanted to hold her.
Shiloh wanted to touch his tattoo with her tongue to see if she could feel the lines. “Did the Navy come up with their core values after they met you?”
“Shiloh”—Cary’s voice was serious—“Mikey told me something, and it’s been bothering me...”
She was licking him. “What?”
“Did you really vote for Ralph Nader?”
She buried her face under his arm. “Why did he tell you that?”
“What were youthinking?”
“It made sense at the time! I’m sorry, okay?” Shiloh poked Cary’s belly. “Did you vote for W?”
He brought his arms down around her. He was laughing. “No. I voted for Al Gore. Like a sane person.”
Seventy-One
Cary was used to getting up early and used to drinking coffee.
Shiloh’s coffeemaker was fairly simple. He stood over it, rubbing his eyes. He was wearing his uniform pants again, and his undershirt. He needed two showers.
He heard Shiloh in the living room.
“I’m making coffee,” he said.
“Thanks.”
He looked up. Shiloh’s mom was standing in the kitchen doorway, wearing a bathrobe.
“Good morning, Gloria.”
She was smiling. Her eyes were laughing. “Good morning, Cary.”
Cary watched the coffee brew. His ears and neck burned.
He poured Gloria the first cup.
Seventy-Two
Shiloh sent an email to her divorce attorney, and on Monday morning, she got an email back:
“Ryan doesn’t want to amend the overnight agreement.”
“Why not?”Shiloh replied.
“He doesn’t have to say why not. You can try to talk to him. But as it stands, no overnight guests unless you’re engaged. (I think this was something you wanted originally, Shiloh.)”
Shiloh wanted to wear her diamond ring, but she reallydidn’twant to have to explain the ring to Junie. She would explain it all—in stages—after Cary left, and in the meantime, she hoped, they could continue enjoying Junie’s customary enthusiasm and goodwill.
Cary wanted to wait to tell his mom about their engagement until after he’d sold her house. He didn’t want his sisters to know and make things complicated. Shiloh wondered if his sisters would be invited to the wedding. She wondered if she and Cary would even have a wedding. There hadn’t been a good time to talk about it yet.
He’d taken her metal fan with him when he left Saturday morning. (It took him fifteen minutes to get her bedroom window closed.) He came back that night with a plastic fan and a few changes of clothes, which were still folded in a neat stack on top of Shiloh’s dresser.
