“And after we did the campus stuff, Eve took me to the Science Centre!” Clara was on a roll. “There was an exhibition on black holes that was awesome. And then we had dinner at this adorable little place called the Ladybug Café, which was awesome.”

“Awesome,” he deadpanned. Clara missed the joke, but Evie didn’t. Her eyes twinkled. “You ready to go, Clare Bear?”

“Yep.”

“And do you have something to say to your host?”

Clara responded by throwing her arms around Evie. “Thank you! I had the best time. I’m so excited to come here next year.”

“I had the best time, too.” Evie appeared to be hugging Clara just as hard as Clara was hugging Evie. “Break a leg at the taping!”

And then Sawyer took his sister to the TVOntario studios and watched as she was made up, briefed, and ushered onto the same set he had seen so many times on television.

He watched her speak passionately and intelligently about vaccination policy.

He reminded himself that everything he had done, he had done for a reason.

Evie had gone to library school, and Clara had turned into a girl genius whose future was bright.

This was the way everything was supposed to turn out.

Hey, how did the taping go? What are you guys up to?

Sawyer grabbed his phone from the nightstand. His stomach did a funny flipping thing when he saw the text was from Evie. The taping went great. What I am up to is flipping through TV channels in my hotel room because Clara ditched me.

The phone rang. He switched to the TV guide channel, set the remote down, and answered the phone. “Hey.”

“Ditched by the teenager!” She sounded almost gleeful.

“Yeah, she and Lynn wanted to go out to dinner. I spoke to her parents on the phone. There didn’t seem to be any reason not to let them. It’s not like they won’t be able to do whatever the hell they want come next fall.”

“Aww, you’re freaking out, aren’t you?”

“I am not freaking out,” he lied. “I’m just sitting here trying to decide between”—he examined the listings scrolling on the TV—“Keeping Up with the Kardashians and…House Hunters International. This is why— Oh, hang on.”

“What?”

It took him a moment to say it, because seeing the title pop up in the listings felt a little like being zapped with a cattle prod. “The Little Mermaid is on. At eight. On the Disney Channel.”

“Oh. My parents don’t have cable.”

“Come over and watch it with me here.”

Silence.

Yeah, there was making up and being not not-friends, and then there was watching The Little Mermaid. Some things were best left in the past.

But then he opened his goddamned mouth and said, “Come on. You love this movie. I’ll run out and get snacks.”

More silence.