She looked up then, as if she’d heard him thinking about her, and Jefferson watched her face light up as their eyes met. He knew he wasn’t imagining their connection, and he was willing to bet she was equally aware of it. Hard to say if that made the situation better or worse.
He sat down beside her, leaving a respectful distance between them. “Everything okay?”
“It turns out I’m a tiny bit weird about people buying things. There’s a little voice in the back of my head that’s always whining,Are you sure that’s a good idea?So, yeah. That’s what it was. Money stuff.”
That tracked with what he’d gathered about her early life. It also sounded like a partial truth, but he wasn’t going to push for more. She’d talk when she was ready. Or not at all, considering he probably wasn’t her top choice of confidant.
“It’s a ti plant.”
It took Jefferson a few seconds to catch up. He’d been letting his eyes wander while he thought about Libby, but it must have looked like he was captivated by the pointy fuchsia leaves.
“The gardens here are beautiful. I bet you’d love to take pictures, if we had more time.”
He nodded, though he wasn’t thinking about plants. “Are you going to say something wise about sand and hourglasses?”
“No.” She spoke without looking at him. “But I do wish I’d met you under different circumstances.”
Jefferson knew what she meant, though he wasn’t ready to trade the memory of that day on the beach. He felt like a teenager, sitting in the dark next to a girl he liked, both pretending to watch the movie while totally focused on each other.If I put my arm here, will she move away? Was that an accidental foot touch or something more?
Only he and Libby were both grown-ups, so the question of whether she was putting out feelers or throwing up a wall carried much higher stakes.
“Are you talking about your husband?”
“Hmmm?” She seemed genuinely puzzled. “Oh, him? No.” Libby started to shake her head, before rapidly correcting course. “I mean, of course that’s part of it. In a way.” She gripped the back of her neck with both hands, squeezing as she tipped her head back. “You must think I’m a monster.”
“No.” There was an understatement for the record books.
“You know that saying, ‘You’ve made your bed, now you have to lie in it’?”
Jefferson nodded. That was a pedestrian one, by Lillibet standards.
“It’s like that. Except I didn’t make the bed, or wash the sheets, and the mattress sucks, and somebody stole my pillow. I’m lyingin a big mess, basically. It might as well be an old lumpy futon on the floor. With fleas. And what if this is the only bed I ever get?”
Even before he heard the hitch in her voice, Jefferson recognized the signs of a doom spiral. Next the mattress would be on fire, surrounded by quicksand and piranhas.
“Hey.” He put a hand on her shoulder, forcing himself not to dwell on the shape of it, or the warmth of her skin. “Do you need ice cream?”
Libby sniffled. “Yes,” she said in a small voice. “How did you know?”
“I’ve seen the symptoms before.”
“Your nieces?” she guessed.
“Sometimes.”
She smiled at him through damp lashes, and Jefferson had a vision of a cartoon tombstone with his name on it.Wounded bird,said the voice of reason.Wedding vows.But it was like telling someone to pack an umbrella when they were already soaked. A waste of breath.
“There you are!” Hildy cut through a sunburned family whose coloring screamedUpper Midwest,raising both arms to keep her shopping bags from whacking the occupants of the double stroller. “I know you’re supposed to choose your own Me-mas gifts, but I couldn’t resist. Also I feel like we’ve reached a place where we reallygeteach other, so it’s not like I’m going to love something you’d hate, or vice versa.”
“You shouldn’t have.” It wasn’t a knee-jerk response; Libby sounded genuinely distressed.
Hildy wedged herself onto the bench between them, depositing her loot on the ground. “This is cozy. Just the three of us.”
“Where’s Jean?” Libby asked, scanning the passing traffic.
“I was supposed to tell you. She had to go. Said not to expect her for dinner. Oh, and we ran into Keoki as he was leaving, andhis cousin got us VIP seats for the show tonight. Hot shirtless men and open flames! My uncle is going to love it.”
“Is that so?” Jefferson was curious to hear Hildy’s rationale.
