“It’s actually very beautiful. But you know what’s disappointing?” She waited until he shook his head, then said, “I’ve never, not once in all these years, seen them come back again.”
Liam rocked back in his seat.
“I keep watching. And hoping. You know. After. Maybe someday it’ll happen.”
Liam stared across the table. Gaped, really. Then . . .
He laughed.
“You’re making fun of me!”
“No, really. All this time. Not one zombie.”
He laughed again. “You really do that? I mean, like, it’s a job?”
“I try to be a good friend during their last hard time on earth. I do my best to keep them from ever feeling lonely. Along with all the other stuff.”
“And you watch them die!”
Ryan said quietly, “It’s a lot more complicated than that.”
His mother might as well not have spoken. Liam demanded, “What is it like?”
“I hold their hands. By this point, I know what’s most special. Sometimes it’s music, or poetry. I give them a last taste of what made life good. I try to make it nice. I let them know I’m there for them.”
“So they’ll wake up again!”
“Liam.”
“Not yet. Maybe someday.” She loved his laugh. Big as his gaze. A musical gift all its very own. “Of course, if they ever did wake up again, I wouldn’t be an end-of-life carer anymore. I’d be . . .”
“A zombie maker!” A third laugh, the biggest of all. “This is the coolest job ever!”
Jenna glanced at his mother, took in the overbright gaze, the way she and Ethan shared a trembly smile. She asked Liam, “Will you show me your drawings?”
CHAPTER12
Noah did not want the night to end.
He drove back through Miramar with all the windows down, taking it so slow he half expected Jenna to ask why he was crawling along empty streets. But when he glanced over, she leaned against the doorframe, eyes half shut, hair drifting in slow-motion waves. Watching the silent shops and the darkened side streets. He thought she might be smiling, but he could not be sure.
The evening of good wine, great food, and wonderful people had all been made even more special by Jenna. She did not charm his friends. She bonded with them. Liam had opened up in ways that clearly astonished both Ethan and Ryan. Following dessert, the two of them had shifted over to the sofa. Jenna had positioned herself at one end while Liam leaned on the armrest, turning pages in his sketchbook. The artwork that he had rarely allowed his own mother or Ethan to even glimpse. Jenna laughing and exclaiming over the ghouls and undead that had become Liam’s fascination.
They were all her friends now.
There was an uncommon depth to this woman. Noah assumed it was partly due to her remarkable profession. Or calling, as she put it. The way she held herself, the depth and intensity to her gaze, the way she seemed to measure each word, these were unique elements to a woman he truly wanted to know better.
The intensity of his feelings scared him.
As they passed the town’s limits, Jenna quietly declared, “I want in.”
Noah put on his blinker and pulled onto the verge. Cut the motor. Swung around so he was half facing the woman and all her quiet mysteries. “You’re talking about the boat.”
She opened her mouth, touched the tip of her tongue to her upper lip. As if tasting a thought. But all she said was, “Yes.”
He was tempted to reply that he wished she was speaking about a whole lot more. Which he was fairly certain was the wrong thing to say, driving her home on their first date. Not then, not yet. Perhaps never.
Jenna took his silence as a reason to continue. “You saw how the boat upset me.”
