“I absolutely agree,” Julia said. “She’s known the man for how long? More than twenty years? And now she’s suddenly all goo-goo about him? I mean, he’s the same guy he was when she got the library job and moved to Chilson permanently. Why the lovefest now, and not then?”

Another good question, and one I’d pondered myself. Rafe, tallish, darkish, and handsome-ish, had indeed not changed a bit since I’d first met him on Chilson’s city beach, the first summer I’d been sent north to stay with my aunt Frances. That was the same summer I’d met my best friend, Kristen Jurek, so maybe the two-girls-against-one-boy element had something to do with the delayed love. Or maybe it had taken me this long to recognize that Rafe’s annoying habit of pretending to be far dumber than he was would never change and I might as well get used to it.

Or, far more likely, I simply hadn’t been ready. Rafe had recently confessed that the gorgeous old house he’d been renovating for three years had been for me all along, and he’d almost given up hope I’d ever come around to loving him.

Every time I thought about that, I shivered. “Timing is everything,” I said to Julia.

“Huh.” She flopped back against her seat. “Truth in three words. But I still want to see a ring.”

So did my mother, sister-in-law, and oldest niece. My dad, brother, nephew, and younger niece were more concerned with making sure we picked a wedding date that didn’t interfere with the play-off schedules of multiple sports teams. “What kind of ring would you like me to have?”

Julia perked up. “I get to pick?”

“No. But before you slump, all exaggerated and actor-like, I’d be happy to hear your ideas.”

“Nothing normal,” she immediately said. “There’s nothing average about the two of you, so your rings should reflect non-normality.”

I wasn’t sure “non-normality” was a word, but I let it go. “You made ‘ring’ into a plural. How many are we talking about?” I wiggled my empty fingers against the steering wheel. “I’m not used to wearing any.” Long ago, I’d had a high school class ring, but that had been lost after my junior year when I’d jumped into Lake Michigan on Memorial Day after being dared to by Kristen. Every part of me had shrunk from the frigid water temperature and my ring had slipped off into the sandy bottom, lost forever to the vagaries of water and wind.

Julia held up her left hand, three fingers extended. “One engagement ring for you. One wedding band for you. One wedding band for Rafe.”

“Sounds normal. I thought normal was out.”