Hm, she’d obviously tapped into something. “Oh, I do. All night, you’ve nailed me.” She laughed. “Oh, my God, what is coming out of my mouth tonight? I swear I don’t normally have such a dirty mind. Is there a portal? A wrinkle in the time-space continuum I could drop into?”

“Even if I knew of one, I wouldn’t tell you about it.” He made a face that said, Forget about it. “You’re too much fun.”

“And you’re awesome at deflecting. You don’t think you’re good at reading people?” Had past girlfriends said he didn’t pay enough attention to them?

He settled back in his seat, tapping his fingers on the table. “I know I’m good at it.”

“But you don’t want to tell me why?”

He glanced away. “I thought we were getting alcohol?”

“Do you even drink?”

“Not much, no.”

“So…” She made a circular motion with her hand. Go on and tell me.

“Fine. Well, I lost my sister when I was twelve. She was six.”

Oh, God. She rested her hand on his thigh.

He went quiet, emotions flickering across his features, like shadows beneath a frozen lake. “Worst thing that ever happened to me.” He stared at the syrup bottle.

“I’m sorry.”

“I was there. Saw the whole thing.” He plucked a sugar packet out of the plastic caddy. “Anyhow, it wrecked my family. And I guess I learned to watch my parents’ expressions, so I could…I don’t know…” He shrugged. “Fix things. I could tell when my mom was sinking into a depression, so I’d get upbeat, try to cheer her up. Or she’d be gunning for a fight, and I’d distract her.”

“That’s a tremendous amount of responsibility for a twelve-year-old to take on.”

“People show up the first couple of months after a tragedy. After that, they go back to their lives. Maybe they think bad luck is contagious, or they just don’t want to be pulled into the sadness. In any event, it was just me and my parents, and they didn’t much like each other.” He tapped the sugar packet on the table. “So, yeah, I’m pretty much expert level at reading expressions.”

“That must get exhausting.”

“Oh, I don’t do it with everyone. In fact, I hardly ever do it.”

“Really? Why me?”

“Here you go.” The waiter dropped off the check. “Have a nice night.”