“We’re not fighting!” Shit. We were about to fight, weren’t we?

Mickey left, Marcus babbling away.

“So,” Noah said, sitting down across the table from me. “A gallery show. Wow.”

“Yeah. Hasan Sadik. Very, very prestigious.”

“For that flowery porn painting.”

“Well, yeah. I mean, that’s one way of putting it, sure. I think the interior designer called it a huge vagina painting. So I have to make more of the same. That’s what I was doing most of today.”

“How are you gonna work that?”

“Uh . . . what do you mean?”

“Are you moving back to the city?”

“Um . . . I don’t know. I mean, eventually. I have a job there. Teaching. So yeah. I guess so. But the problem is, my father isn’t—”

He threw up his hands. “Are you kidding me?”

“No. Why?”

“Jesus, Sadie! We slept together!”

“I know! I was there! And I’m really happy about that.”

“Are you? Because I’m feeling used all of a sudden.”

I tried a smile. “I think it was a mutual using, pal.”

“I love you, Sadie.”

“I love y—”

“I never stopped. So we spend more than a decade apart, and then you come home and we get back together, and now you’re leaving again? For that same New York bullshit?”

“Okay, for one, it’s not—”

“Your sister is right. You’re unreliable.”

“—bullshit. Noah. It’s what I’ve worked for all my life. And when did Juliet say I was unreliable?”

“Once your father’s situation is settled, you’re done, aren’t you? You’ll go back to the city and maybe come out here to visit a couple times a year.”

“And for two, my father’s situation is a long way from settled.” My eyes filled again at the thought of Dad, but I refused to cry right now.

Noah clenched his jaw and looked out the window. “I have a son now. A family. You can’t pop in and out of our life whenever you feel like it. You have to make a plan, Sadie, and it’s clear I’m not in it, and Jesus Christ, I can’t believe I fell for this again.”

“I think you missed the part where I said I loved you.”

“And what exactly does that mean?”

“It means exactly what I said! I love you, Noah!”

“Are you gonna stay here? Are you going to marry me?”

“This is hauntingly familiar, you giving me ultimatums and telling me how life should be.”

“Are you going to stay?”