“Besides Cormac, really, just terrible.”

“Who’s Cormac?”

For the first time since she’d met John, his face truly softened. It was still a very far cry from friendly, but some of the ice had defrosted. He nodded his head across the block party toward the large redheaded man that Estrella had been leaning against before. “My mother’s live-in.”

Mary’s mouth fell open. “Estrella has a partner? She never mentioned. Not once...”

“It doesn’t surprise me. My mother is old-fashioned. Officially, she doesn’t believe in premarital sex.”

“Yet she has a live-in boyfriend?”

“Ah, ah, ah,” John said with one finger ticking back and forth. “He’s not her boyfriend. She refers to him as her tenant. I think I was about twelve when I finally realized that most tenants don’t share your mother’s bed with her.”

“They’ve been together that long?”

“Almost as long as I can remember.” Something pained flicked across John’s face, but the scowl resumed almost immediately.

“Why don’t they just get married?”

“My mother also doesn’t believe in second marriages,” he said with a roll of his eyes. That striking gaze flicked down to Mary. “She does, however, strongly believe in gray areas.”

Mary laughed, despite her surly company. “So. What’s wrong with Jonah?”

“Hmm?”

“The apparent next on Estrella’s list. You said his name is Jonah. What’s wrong with him?”

“Oh. Let’s see. Midthirties, lives with his mother still, dates barely legals he meets on Tinder. Plays it fast and loose with deodorant. And I know for a fact he still shoplifts from Gristedes.”

“Wow. Does Estrella even have criteria?”

John grunted. “I’ve never seen her quite so determined to set someone up before. That’s really what I meant. Before. When I said that thing about you being desperate.” He mumbled the last part. “I guess I just wanted to know why my mother was pushing this so hard.”

Mary, of course, knew the exact answer to that question, but she’d rather eat the entire tube of Chanel lipstick she kept in her purse than explain it to John. “Maybe she just wants a project.” Mary cleared her throat. “Maybe she knows just how great I am and wants to see me happy.”

John grunted again.

What a lovely man.

“I’m going to grab some food, I think.”

She was ten steps away when those two heavy fingers tapped her shoulder again. “Look, Mary, let me make it up to you.”

“What do you mean?”