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She sniffed. “Because patterns are hard to break.”

Yes, they are. But I hoped she did it anyway.

We hung up a few minutes later. I was about to go to sleep when my phone vibrated. A text from Seth. I grinned and called him.

“Charlotte . . . ,” he said, picking up immediately.

“Did you just send what I think you sent me?”

“An unsolicited deck pic? Yes, yes, I did.”

I snorted.

“If you trimmed those hedges, it would look bigger,” I said.

He laughed.

“I wanted to show you that tree I told you about. It’s the one behind the barbecue.”

“Oh yeah,” I said, zooming in. “I can see it. The little initials you carved into it.”

“Long, looong before I had the respect I now have for oaks. You’d never catch me doing this today.”

“Of course. So this is your parents’ house?”

“Yeah.”

“It seems nice.”

“It is,” he said. “You should come meet them.”

“Meet your parents . . .”

“Yeah, they’d love you.”

“They’d love me? The girl you’ve known for less than a blink of the eye to a redwood?”

“Yes, but we are not trees though. It’s much, much longer for me. And much more important.”

I went quiet on my end.

Izzy was right. Seth was a little into me. And I had to put a stop to it.

“Seth . . . you know how we talked about fall risks?” I said.

“Yeah.”

I paused. “I think you are a bit of a fall risk for me.”

I could practically feel the smile through the phone. “You’re a fall risk for me too.”

“That’s not a good thing,” I said. “I am not in a place where I can do that right now.”

“Why not?”

I let a breath out through my nose.

I didn’t want to get into it. Mostly because I was afraid I’d tell him my reasons, and he’d try to talk me out of them or tell me it was okay. The truth was, it wasn’t okay. Even if he thought it was.