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Theo looks at him. Nods once.

“He’s harmless,” I say.

“He’s terrible at his job. I could have walked you out the back and he’d never have known.”

“Arina said something similar about one of hers.”

“Then she has good instincts.”

There’s a beaten-up black truck parked behind my car. On the passenger seat, I can see a fistful of daisies wilting against the window, their roots still trailing dirt across the upholstery.

I stop.

“Are those yours?”

He follows my gaze. For the first time since I walked into the gym, he looks like he’d rather be somewhere else.

“My niece picked them,” he says. “This afternoon.”

“For you?”

He shifts his weight. “For our wedding.”

I laugh. I can’t help it. It bursts out of me in a loud bubble of sound, and I have to put my hand over my mouth.

Theo watches me laugh like he’s never seen anyone do it before.

“I haven’t said yes,” I remind him, when I can breathe again.

“I know.”

“So they’re a bit premature.”

“They’re a bit dead,” he says. “But she’ll ask if you got them.”

He opens his truck door, reaches in, and takes one daisy out of the bunch. He pinches the root from the stem, very carefully, and holds it out to me.

I look at it for a long moment. It’s droopy and bedraggled with a bent stem.

I take it.

“The shelter’s back fence came down in the storm last week and nobody’s fixed it. The landlord keeps promising...” I tuck the daisy behind my ear before I can lose my nerve. “If you want to talk every day, you can start by helping me fix the fence panel.”

“What time?”

“Eight.” I unlock my car. “Bring your hands. Leave the reputation.”

He doesn’t smile, but something in his face shifts.

“Eight,” he repeats.

I drive away with a dead daisy behind my ear and terrible coffee on my breath, and I make it four whole blocks before I realize I’ve been smiling the entire time.

THEO

The shelter doesn’t have a sign.

It’s a three-story brick house on a quiet street in Bridgeport, with window boxes full of dead geraniums and a front door painted a cheerful, determined yellow. The only giveaways are the cameras. Four of them, set high under the eaves, and one more above the gate at the side. Good ones. Somebody spent real money on those.