He said goodbye to Raymond in the foyer of the inn. “Hoss,” he said.

“Hoss,” said Raymond.

“If you happen into Pru down there . . .”

Raymond said, “Pru and me, we’ll be all right after a while, after I get over the urge to drop her off some tower. I could marry her now, would be one way to go. Luisa and I are done with business. Her intended’s the lawyer did our divorce. Pru would rebel but deep inside it’s what she wants—marriage, quit her job, a dad for Lilith, some taste of calm.”

“We all acted pretty stupid,” Raf said. “Next time, we’ll just talk about how stupid we were.”

“No,” Raymond said.

Every mile I drove toward Logan, I felt a sad panic. “There must be something of dying in this,” I told Raymond. “Maybe why people make those we’ll-call-every-day promises.”

“Right,” he said.

“You want to make sure the other keeps on . . .”

“Right.”

“It’s funny, my staying with Dottie and Raf’s gonna be at Mario’s. Like we went home to Mom and Dad,” I said.

“That’s funny,” Raymond said.

“Until we grow up, as you suggested.”

Raymond put on his dictator dark glasses and lit a cigarette. He smoothed back his sunny hair. He said, “I remember I walked into that cantina and seen you last summer shaking in your booth, and I told myself, ‘Raymond, you move real slow on this one ’cause she’ll spook like a rabbit. She’ll go streaming off like a rabbit.’ ”

“You were such a gent,” I said.

“You know, except when you were on the road, we been together almost every day since?”

I hadn’t realized that, but it explained why, on safari in my back thoughts, was the idea that Raymond would stay with me. I said, “I’ll pay. I’m serious, I’ll pay for the flight if you’ll come back next weekend or the one after.”

“I need to get with my crew and work. And I ran through most of my savings. Gotta replace my car,” Raymond said.

“But what’s important, finally?” I asked.

“Important? Walking upright. Havin’ a daughter. I got all your dad’s signals. Not so stupid as Raf thinks.”

“I can’t stand this,” I said.

“I lied about your poetry,” Raymond said. “I don’t like it. You aren’t in it, or maybe you’d say there’s some coded version, but fuck that. My tastes, whatever thing you make is you, no mistaking it.”

I winced but set a little smile.

“You should’ve been different with me, Paige. You got a nice inn to go to, and a sit-down horseshit job, and Raf’s got your dad backin’ him up, but what I do sort of counts.”

“Like leaving Luisa and moving in with Pru?” I said.

Raymond huffed and cranked his window and fired away his cigarette.