“You’re always doing stuff like that without being asked. You’re the kindest person I’ve ever been with, and I…” She drew a breath, swallowing whatever she’d almost said. “Now’s not the time, dammit. Not when we’re in a rush.”

“For what, thank-you sex?” he asked in confusion.

“That would be fun, but no. Are you wearing the necklace?”

“Every day.”

Her fixation on that worried him a little, but if it gave her peace of mind, the pendant didn’t bother him. In fact, he liked knowing how much it meant to her. It wasn’t a ridiculous assumption to imagine that he mattered as well, right? Sometimes it felt like they truly were married, like forever and all, but the fear of being discarded lingered. They’d agreed to keep things flexible, which meant either one of them could call it quits at any time.

That’s like trying to build a house on quicksand.

Ten minutes was long enough to warm up the car. He had it toasty when she burst out of the building, practically running, even in heels. Leanne skidded on an icy patch on the pavement, and he half came out of the car, even knowing he was too damn far away to save her. Yet she caught herself, slipped a few steps, and kept coming. That was Leanne, graceful and self-sufficient even in the middle of a stumble.

She said she doesn’t deserve me, but it’s the other way around.

He reached across to open her door for her, and she slid into the car, breathless, in a burst of nearly winter wind. “Go, go, go, they’re after us,” she joked.

Sometimes she was like this, charming and silly, and he would’ve kissed her, except they were on their way for her to meet her dying father for the first—and probably last—time. So it didn’t fit the mood. Instead, he touched her cheek with a chilly hand then mapped the route on his phone and put the car in reverse. Leanne buckled in as Trev backed out of the parking spot and passed through the checkpoint at the gate.

“Do you want to talk?” he asked.

“About what?”

“Anything.”

“You already know most of it. Junie wasn’t great at being a single mom. I pretty much raised myself. I earned my own money from the time I was eleven or so. I took a course at the hospital in CPR and babysat neighborhood kids. Frankly, their parents shouldn’t have trusted me. I was a kid myself, but…” She lifted a shoulder.

“You grew up fast.”

“I had to,” she said bluntly. “Because Junie wouldn’t. As for my dad, you know as much as I do.”

“Then, if you don’t feel like—”