“I wouldn’t want you to be that guy,” Mary replied immediately, vehemently. “Because then you wouldn’t be you. And there’s no one else like you. Seriously, I’ve looked. I’ve had thirty-seven years to search, and you’re the only one I’ve found.”

John’s eyes dropped back to their hands and Mary took the opportunity to really look at his face. Sometimes, when his eyes were on her, that iceberg blue was the only thing she could see, she missed the forest for the trees. But now she took great pleasure in observing the inky black frame of his hair and eyebrows. She relished the cut of his jaw, highlighted with blue-black stubble, the way his ears lay so flat against his head. Jeez, she was gone for him.

“So. Boyfriend, huh?” His eyes flicked up and she froze, flushing deeply.

“I...thought so? I mean, obviously it’s not a decision that can be made unilaterally, but yeah. It rolled off my tongue so easily I think because it suits what we are to one another.” She cleared her throat. “Right?”

He was full-on grinning now, the way he had on the dance floor. It was the kind of smile that changed his entire face. “I can’t believe MFT just asked me to be her boyfriend.”

Mary laughed and warmed and smiled all at once. She’d told him about Cora’s nickname. She loved so much that there was someone on planet Earth who called her that again. “So what if I did?”

“I haven’t been a boyfriend since undergrad. I might be bad at it.”

“I’m not particularly worried.” A thought occurred to her. “Although maybe you should be. Boyfriends tend to meet parents.”

He gave her a look that was so patently Estrella that Mary nearly laughed aloud. “I’ll be thrilled to meet your mother. I’ll tell her all about my cougar fetish.”

Mary threw her head back and roared with laughter. “Oh, my God. She’d have a heart attack. It would serve her right for laying into me about my age this much.”

Mary sobered and absently leaned forward to kiss John again, barely registering that she was seeking comfort from him. “It really is going to be terrible, John. Meeting her. I’m going to be humiliated the entire time with the way she speaks to me. You’re going to see what a pushover my dad is. Ugh. Let’s just skip it.”

“Mary.” His hand went up to her cheek, pushing her hair back. He opened his mouth to say something, but the bell over the door jingled, and they both looked back to see who was coming into the shop.