My brain registered the words, but my eyes were locked onto him as if they’d been waiting for this moment their whole misguided lives.
“What do you mean, before he’d left for New York?” I asked, barely managing sound. My gaze didn’t move. Not an inch. Even when someone behind us sneezed loudly, and I felt something wet on the back of my neck. I grabbed a napkin Hattie had in her lap and frantically wiped it off...but I still kept my eyes on him.
Hattie waved her hand. “He went off and worked at some hedge fund for who knows what reason. Wore suits. Lived in skyscrapers. Terrifying, really.”
I swallowed, because the version of him currently rolling his shoulders and adjusting his grip on the rope was decidedly not a man who belonged behind a desk.
“I’m glad he’s come back to his senses,
