Well. He wasn’t sure anyone had ever said something that made him feel this good. And normally he would change his ticket in a heartbeat. “I wish I could stay, but I’m flying to Innsbruck to meet Seb for a series of meetings regarding construction permits.”

She smiled, her tears gone. “That sounds like something a person with a job would say.”

“Well, remember, I’m not getting paid.”

“An almost-job. To go with my almost-divorce.” She shook the papers. “If I understand the process correctly, we file these, and then at some point there’s a judgment, and eventually a certified copy arrives in the mail.”

“I beat you, though. We’ll be breaking ground next month.” And of course, there was her other resolution—the sex resolution. Typically, he would make a joke about that here, but he found he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to talk about it at all.

“Overachiever.” She swatted him on the chest, and before she could retract her hand, he grabbed it, pulled her into a hug. He felt that was allowed, that after all the revelations of the past two days, this was a thing they did now.

She must have agreed, because she came easily. They stood embracing silently for a long moment.

“I’ll see you at the wedding in November,” she said with what seemed like artificial cheerfulness when they finally parted.

“How long will you be in Eldovia? You should stay a while. You have the teaching leave this fall. You’re planning to be a lie-about anyway, yes? So come lie about with me.”

“I’d love to, but I don’t want to leave Max Minimus for that long. After a few days without me at my parents’ place, he starts to get weird and mopey. I haven’t booked my ticket yet, but I’m thinking four, five days at most.”

“I assumed you’d be bringing my namesake with you? Like last time?”

“No. Not doing that again. He freaked out being confined to a tiny crate under the seat on the plane.

“Well, that’s too bad,” he said, understating the matter entirely. Just because he had somehow developed an emotional dependence on Dani didn’t mean he could expect her to arrange her life to accommodate him.

He made himself get into the car. He had a mime to take to the airport. He rolled down the window, and she came to stand beside it. “Until November,” she said.

“Until November,” he echoed. It was too long to be without her, but what choice did he have?

On her way out of what looked like it was going be her last meeting with her lawyer, Dani checked her phone to find texts from Max.

Max: How do you feel about private jets?