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I noticed Adam’s dad’s shirt. A polo with the logo of Adam’s company stitched on the upper right chest.
His parents’ pride in Adam continued throughout our afternoon together. And to my relief, the way they talked to and about Saya confirmed they viewed her more than a status doctor symbol. From what I’d seen today, his parents valued their children exactly as they were.
“Come here.” Adam spoke close to my ear. “Want to get out of here for a minute?”
“Absolutely.”
We walked through his parents’ neighborhood. A small park waited at the end of the short block. We found a shady spot along the edge of an empty playground.
He kissed me gently on the forehead. “Thanks for coming today. I know my folks can be a lot.”
“My own parents contributed.” I shuddered thinking of the wedding veil. Not because of the veil itself, or even of the idea of wearing it at my own wedding. The veil would be wonderfully meaningful at the right time. It’d only been four weeks since Adam and I crash landed in each other’s lives again.
“We’re bringing on another full-timer for the office,” he said. “I decided yesterday.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that mean?”
“Less paperwork for me, more time with you.”
“Just when I start my new job.”
“But you have set hours. You don’t have work overtime to impress some professor.”
“But the confocal imaging! You have no idea how much I already love what I’m going to be doing.”
“I don’t know what that is, but I’m happy for you.”
“It’s laser scanning microscopy.” And bless his heart, he let me tell him all about it. Well, let me to the extent as I decided he needed to know about advanced microscopes. And he listened. They were very cool.
“I love you, you know.” Adam played with the ends of my hair.
I kissed him. More chaste than I’d prefer, but we were in a public playground. Empty, but still. “I love you too.”
“We can take all the time we need. I’ll tell the folks to back off about us moving in together or getting married.”
I knew he’d make good on his promise. I also knew we might not need much time. When you knew, you knew. And I knew. I had no interest in another ten years apart. The driving distance between us now offered space when we needed it. “Puppies are a lot of work. I’ll need support.”
He grinned. “Happy to help on that front.”
“I’ve already got a name picked out—Charlie. Short for Charlevoix. I think it will work on a boy or girl pupper.”
He ran his fingers down to my hand and clasped it. “You know, I looked into the double-booking glitch some more. I still can’t figure out what happened.”
“Maybe it was fate.”
“You? Believing in fate?”
I half-shrugged. “It sounds more romantic than our parents set us up.”
His mouth dropped open. “You don’t think—”
“Listen, our moms talk. I’d just broken up with what’s-his-face.” Dumped by, but who cared now. “Even though I booked the rental six months ago, my mom gave me the hard sell on using your family’s property. I told her no like three times before I caved. Mainly because everything else reasonably priced was booked already. I had no idea people reserved summer homes a year in advance.”
“It’s competitive. But your mom wouldn’t have known I’d be there fixing the house. I’d only decided to go when—” He stopped.
“What?”
“My folks suggested I go up north for the summer last Christmas. They gave me a set of keys to the house and a loose budget for renovations. That was six months ago. I told them I couldn’t leave my business.”
