His hands cup my face. “If you even give me the time of day, I’m the luckiest guy.” His thumbs stroke my cheeks. “And if no one has ever recognized all the amazing things about you, they didn’t deserve you anyway.”

“There was one man, once,” I whisper. “Nothing happened, but I thought for a minute that maybe…” Even now, I can lose myself in remembering. The shivers that used to come over me when Al—Senator Sloan—would look my way. I can’t believe he’s coming back here. I’ll have to see him. It’s a weight on my shoulders already.

He’ll whirl in, shake things up, and whirl away.

It’s different with Zeke. He’s present in a way I can touch. He’s real.

I cover his hands with my hands. My body is warm and eager and my mind is screaming at me to stop being so stupid. “Which way to the bedroom?” I ask.

He kisses me lightly on the lips. “We could wait, if you want.”

“No, I’m ready.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Zeke is beautiful and sweet. He will never let me down.

Beyond Zeke’s bedroom, a door bangs open and closed again, shaking us out of our slumberous bubble.

“Roommate?” I ask.

“Not exactly.” His voice is suddenly wary and distant.

I raise my head to look at him. “I have a roommate. Jennica. You met her at the diner.”

Zeke’s squinting at the door, as if willing it not to swing open. Or, probably, checking to see if it is actually locked. “I live with my sister. It’s not weird,” he rushes to add. “Better than staying at home, is all.”

“Did you grow up around here?”

“My parents live about an hour away. I don’t like making the drive every day.”

“How do you like college?”

“It’s better than high school, that’s for sure. I’m about out of patience with school, though. This is my last semester. I’ll be looking for a real community organizing job when I graduate.”

“What will happen to SCORE?”

“If I can find a job here in Underhill, then I’ll stay on as an advisor.”

A jolt, like a current, courses through me. “You would leave Underhill?”

Zeke strokes my shoulder. “God, are you kidding? As soon as possible.”

“Oh.”

He rolls away, and the side of me that was touching him grows cool in the sudden open breeze of the sheets. All of me shivers. I pull up the blankets.

“Look,” he says, coming back to me. He has a book. It’s full of beautiful images from places around the country. “Don’t you want to see the whole world?”