“Of course.”
“I’ll know. Just from how he looks at me.”
“We’ll skid out on two wheels if necessary.”
She smiled then, a small, reluctant grin.
“Okay,” I said, trying not to show her that I was almost as nervous as she was. “Let’s do it.”
• • •
I stood on the step, watching Lily so that I wouldn’t think too hard about where I was. The door opened slowly, and there he stood, still in the same cornflower blue shirt I remembered from two summers ago, but a newer, shorter haircut, perhaps a vain attempt to combat the aging effects of extreme grief. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something to me but had forgotten what it was, and then he looked at Lily and stared, and his eyes widened just a little. “Lily?”
She nodded.
He gazed at her intently. Nobody moved. And then his mout
