Sydney pointed to the oranges. “You know, we impress easily. You didn’t have to do this to get our attention.”

“Here’s a secret about men. Our foolishness is always unintentional. But it’s usually for a good reason.” He shook his head. “I sound like my granddad. It’s all Don’t take any wooden nickels from here.”

Sydney laughed. “Bay and I are on a Pop-Tart run.”

“It must be a sweet tooth kind of day. A couple of weeks ago Evanelle brought my granddad a jar of maraschino cherries. He saw them yesterday and said, ‘Why not make more ice cream and have banana splits?’ The only thing we were lacking was the hot fudge. So I took off early today to get it.”

“Sweet stuff is definitely worth the extra trip,” Sydney said.

“Why don’t you come out? Are you busy? There’ll be plenty of banana splits. And I could show Bay around. She could see the cows.”

Bay’s mind cleared, like the sun peeking through clouds. “Let’s go see the cows!” Bay said enthusiastically, trying to get her mother in on it. “Cows are great!”

Sydney looked at her, puzzled. “First planes and now cows. Since when did you get to be such a cow lover?”

“Don’t you like cows?” Bay asked.

“I’m indifferent to cows,” Sydney said, then turned to Henry. “We walked here. We don’t have a way out there.”

“I can take you,” Henry offered.

Bay tugged on her mother’s shirt. Didn’t she see, didn’t she see how calm she was around him, how their hearts were beating in rhythm? The pulses at their throats were in sync. “Please, Mommy?”

Sydney looked from Bay to Henry. “Looks like I’m outnumbered.”

“Great! I’ll meet you at the checkout,” Henry said, and walked away.

“Okay, dairy queen, what gives?” Sydney asked.

“Don’t you see it?” Bay said, excited.

“See what?”

“He likes you. Like Tyler likes Claire.”

“Maybe not quite that way, honey. He’s my friend.”

Bay frowned. This was going to be harder than she thought. Usually, things fell into place a lot easier when Bay pointed out where they belonged. She really had to figure out how to reproduce her dream exactly in real life. Nothing was going to be exactly right until she did. It was even now keeping her mother from realizing what was perfect for her.

They met Henry in front and he showed them to his cool silver truck. It was a king cab and Bay got to sit in the back, which she liked because it was so improbable to be sitting in the backseat of a truck without actually being in the bed.