“Yes.” She stared at him. “I know you, don’t I?”

“You graduated from North High?”

“Yes.” Loren sneaked peeks at him, still not smiling.

Smile at him, for pity’s sake, it wouldn’t cost you anything. Roxie willed her daughter to respond.

“So did I. I think we were in the same American history class.” His smile widened. “You always sat in the front row, I hid in the back.” He held out his hand. “Nathan Owens.”

Loren hesitated, then shook his hand. “Loren Gilburn.”

“You’re not married.” He released her hand with what Roxie thought of as some reluctance.

“No. Ah, we came to find a rug for my mother’s office.”

Oh, Loren, wake up. You can at least smile.

“Sorry. Of course, come this way.” He dropped his salesperson mask back in place and motioned toward the rugs hanging on frames on the back wall. “Did you have something particular in mind?”

Good man. Roxie silently cheered him on. And kept her mouth shut—a bit difficult to do, but he’d looked at her daughter with interest. A bevy of questions bombarded her mind. He was not wearing a wedding ring but that didn’t mean a lot in this day and age. Millennials were a whole different breed of cat than earlier generations. Please, Lord, let the rug be gone, anything to keep us here. What else could we be looking for?

Loren turned from looking over the rugs. “I don’t see the one we wanted, Mom.”

“Perhaps if you describe what you were looking at, I could help you?”

Loren glanced at her mother, who sent it back. Ah, the telepathy of mother-daughter glances. Loren rolled her eyes and turned back to Nathan.

“What were the colors and the size?” he asked.

“Square rug, geometric pattern, shades of burgundy, dark blues, and gray.”

“Ah, yes. Sorry, that sold the other day. I could order another one. It will take about three weeks. What size did you need?”

Loren looked at Roxie. “What, eight by eight?”

Roxie nodded. “Do you have anything else that is similar?”

“I think so, let me bring a couple of things from the back.” When they both nodded, he left through the door between the rug racks.

“What, you don’t want to wait for an order to come? We could just order it and leave.”

“I know but perhaps there is something I’d like better.”

“And you’ve been looking for a rug for how long?”

Roxie shrugged. “He seems really nice.”

“He sure isn’t the same round geek I remember.”

“People have a way of changing, growing up, you know?”

“I guess.” They turned as Nathan rolled in a dolly with several rugs on it. He lifted one off the pile and spread it on the stack by them.

“This has similar colors.”

“The blocks are bigger.” Roxie studied the rug. “Now I wish I had the other to compare with.”

“This one has tan rather than gray and the burgundy is more rust.” Loren flipped through the pictures on her cell phone to the one she’d taken. “See?”