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“How old was she when you got her?”

“About four months. A woman in my building found her underneath a car. She knocked on my door because she’d seen me carrying somebody else’s dog up the stairs.”

“That was your qualification?”

“The dog had stitches. I was helping,” I said.

“And you looked helpful.”

“I agreed to keep the kitten until Monday. The woman’s boyfriend was allergic.”

“What happened?”

“I had practice on Monday. On Tuesday I bought a scratching post.”

Mark smiled. I watched Peaches lean forward to sniff the edge of the counter.

“She used to sleep inside my sweatshirt,” I said. “While I was wearing it. I’d sit down and she’d climb in through the neck. There was a month when I thought I might have to stop inviting people over.”

“Because of the cat?”

“Because I looked pregnant, and sometimes the pregnancy moved.”

He laughed, then pushed his empty plate back a few inches.

“Last night must have been awful from Boston,” he said. I swept a crumb from the edge of the table with my thumb.

“I kept looking at my shoes. I’d put them on after I got dressed and packed everything. Then I sat there staring at my shoes because there wasn’t anywhere to go yet.”

Across the room, Peaches began washing between two toes.

“I knew you and Anna were doing everything,” I said. “That didn’t help as much as it should have.”

“You didn’t need to feel better for our benefit.”

I looked at him.

“I’m glad I called you,” I said.

“So am I.”

I reached for my coffee. It had cooled, but I drank some anyway.

“Russ wants to meet you,” I said.

“He does?”

“He’s wanted to meet you since you started answering Kelsey’s hockey reports. After last night, you probably rank higher than me in the family.”

“What was he like when you told him you were gay?”

The question surprised me. Not because it was unwelcome. Nobody had asked me about it in years.

“We were in his truck outside a hardware store. I’d spent the whole drive trying to say it and finally managed when he turned the engine off.”

“How old were you?”

“Nineteen. He was seventeen. He’d just got the truck and was looking for reasons to drive people places.”