That was true enough. Doug, Mary’s last serious boyfriend, had been as quick to smile as she was. He was social and gregarious and a blur of sound and motion.

“We’re not going to date. He thinks I’m too old,” Mary reminded Fin.

Fin glanced back and forth between Mary and John. “Maybe you should check on that, Mary. Because I’m not getting many she’s-too-old vibes from that one.”

Then why would he have said it in the first place? Mary watched John continue to play with Jewel for a while and then rose up to check on the levels of food and drink in the kitchen.

Ten or so minutes later, John himself appeared at her side, refilling his glass, this time with just lemonade and ice. She peered at his cup, realizing she hadn’t yet seen him with a plate.

“You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

Interestingly, the tips of John’s ears went pink. “Uh. No.”

“Nothing looks good?” She turned to cast an eye over the extensive spread of platters she’d gotten from the deli.

“It all looks delicious.”

And when Mary turned around, it was to see John practically licking his chops at the food.

“But I ate before I came,” he said as he cleared his throat and turned away.

“You’ve been here for a few hours already. Aren’t you hungry again?” She wasn’t sure why she was pushing him, other than the fact that she was almost certain he was hiding something and she wanted to know what it was.

“I’m, ah, I’m vegan.” His ears went pinker. “I forgot to mention that on Wednesday. I should have brought my own food. It was dumb. I’m new at this.”

She blinked. She’d seen him eat fries and falafel. Street food. But technically vegan. “You’re a new vegan,” she repeated.

“Yeah. Half a year or so.”

“Why?” she asked, completely confounded. She lived for soft cheese spread on a cracker, a perfectly ripe raspberry poised on top. Paper-thin prosciutto. Ugh, eggs Florentine, extra-crispy bacon.

John laughed at whatever expression was crossing her face. “Carbon footprint, mostly. My New Year’s resolution was to see if I could cut mine in half. Lot of fossil fuels get burned in the meat industry. At first, I was just going to be vegetarian. But as I read up on it, a lot of the animal cruelty stuff started to get to me, and now, yeah, I guess my reasons are a mixed bag.”

Mary blinked at him. He was a scowly, rude-faced vegan. Somehow she couldn’t make the pieces fit together. She thought of him sitting on the floor with Jewel, making the little girl laugh. Maybe she couldn’t fit the pieces together yet because she still hadn’t seen a lot of the pieces. He seemed so simple. Judgmental man in wingtips.

He wasn’t simple.