Jordan and Matthew busied themselves. Matthew retrieved the garment bag from the other room and made such a noise of surprise at the massive period dresses inside when he opened it that Sherry and her daughter both laughed at him. Jordan posed the daughter and began to take reference shots, and as she did, Matthew told Sherry jokes. Eventually Matthew got Sherry so cheery that Jordan persuaded her to try on the other period dress and posed her together with her daughter on the chaise. The single portrait became a double, which increased the price by a third and also made it more interesting by far.

She and Matthew were actually a pretty good team, she thought, as they accepted the deposit from Sherry and retreated from the church.

On the sidewalk, Jordan folded over some of the bills to Matthew.

“Is this pity money?” Matthew said suspiciously.

“What does that mean?”

“I dunno, to make me feel like I was a grown-up.”

“You did a job; I’m paying you for the job. Don’t get a complex. I know that’s what Lynch brothers seem to do, but try to avoid it.”

He sighed. “Thanks, then. For back there, too.”

The dreaminess. She’d forgotten how bad the episodes could be, how quickly they could come on. She’d forgotten how she’d been in the middle of one when Declan realized she was a dream. She’d forgotten why she had understood why it would drive him away. No one wanted to be the only man left awake.

Ordinarily a dreamy episode would have defeated Jordan’s mood for the rest of the day, but she found her mood was still as light as it had been before. This was why she was here in Boston. This was why she was searching underneath the beds of strangers. This was why she had bought yet another ticket to the Gardner. She was finding a sweetmetal. She was getting a sweetmetal. She was staying awake. She was staying awake long enough to become great.

Chapter 19

Ronan Lynch still remembered the best dream he’d ever had. It was an old dream now, two years old. Maybe a little less. In the divide of before his father’s death and after, it was After. It was also After his mother’s death. It was Before Harvard. Before Bryde.