The moment lingered for what felt like the rest of the Reagan administration, and just as Dan leaned to hug her, Cady turned and swung open the door to the restaurant.

“Sorry. Hi . . . well . . .”

They sat in a corner booth. In ladylike fashion, Cady spat her cud of Juicy Fruit into a Kleenex. They drank Dr Peppers from heavy frosted mugs and shared chips and queso while Rick Astley warbled “When I Fall in Love” from the bar area.

Cady chewed on her straw. “How was Christmas?”

“Really great, how about you?”

Cady had an Oscar-caliber eye roll. “Oh my God, like shoot me, my family is so crazy.”

That set Cady on a rant about the Bloom clan, and Dan just soaked in every detail of this girl—her clear lacquered nails tapping the talavera tiles set into the table, her brown hair curling over pearl earrings, her dark eyes darting like wrens—and he was just happily lost and infatuated while pretending to follow something about Cady’s racist grandmother from Corsicana. When she finally came up for air, Dan nodded vigorously, overselling his disbelief.

“Wow. Really?”

“I know, right? Ugh, so bizarre.”

In the amber light of the booth, she seemed very kissable, even as she wolfed down queso. To her credit, Dan noticed, Cady didn’t scoop, but dipped her chip daintily.

A coked-up waiter in suspenders sidled by. “How’s this happy couple doing?”

They both blushed and giggled. Dan thought about ordering a cup of coffee to seem more worldly, but Cady asked for the check.

“The basketball game starts in an hour. We gotta get out of here.”

“Right.” Distracted by devising right and wrong moves, Dan had spaced on the Mavs game they were going to. “How are we getting down there?”

“Well . . .” Cady frowned and glanced over Dan’s shoulder. “My brother is driving us. I apologize in advance. Todd, you ready to go?”

Dan turned around and there was Todd Bloom, Jesuit senior, scourge of the underclassmen, and one of the biggest pricks to ever come out of Preston Hollow. He bolted out of one of the back booths with his doofus sidekick, Lang Dudek, in tow. He gave Daniel a knowing feline smile.

Fuck.