She looked down at her feet. She’d thrown on the first pair of shoes she’d seen in her closet before she left her apartment, and they were a pair of cowboy boots she had gotten when she and Ezra spent a long weekend in Nashville last year.

“It’ll go with your whole down-home Texas thing. Howdy,” Emily said, imitating his on-stage twang. “I’m real glad y’all are here tonight.”

Rob laughed. “The audience eats it up. And it’s all y’all,” he said, still laughing. “I’ve gotta make sure I include everyone.”

“I’ll remember that,” Emily said, walking to the dressing room.

“You said you wanted some flip-flops, too, right?” Rob asked. “Did you bring a bathing suit?”

Emily stopped. “I didn’t,” she said. There was a sale rack of bathing suits to the left of the dressing rooms. She walked toward them and started flipping through the options. She pulled a green one-piece off the rack for a closer look.

“How about this one?” Rob asked. He was carrying a black bikini with white piping. “Didn’t you have something like this the summer we were first together? You wore it when we went to Coney Island.”

Emily hadn’t thought about that bikini in years, but she remembered it now. It was strapless—a bandeau top and a low-rise bottom that tied together on the sides. The bikini Rob was holding was cut differently. This one was a halter and the bottoms were a little more modest.

“What do you think?” Rob asked.

Emily took the bikini and looked at the price tag. “I think this is a little more than I want to spend . . .” she said.

“My treat,” Rob said. “The outfit, too.”

“I couldn’t—” Emily started.

“Why don’t you try it on first?” Rob said. “We can figure out who pays afterward.”

—

Emily walked into the dressing room with the bikini and the green one-piece.

She put the bikini on and looked in the mirror. The suit was a bit more revealing than the ones Emily had at home in New York, but it was beautiful. She turned around. Maybe she could get used to this.

“So?” Rob asked, though the door. “Do you need me to help you tie anything in there?”

Emily blushed, imagining him imagining her in the suit. Imagining him imagining her out of the suit. That wasn’t why she was here.

“It fits,” she said. “But I think I’m going to go with the one-piece.”