“I’ll take you home,” I said, and I gathered up our things. “Come on, give me your hand.”

Her expression cleared and she stood up, happy again, like nothing had happened. She took my hand and I squeezed it.

“I love you, Mum.”

“I love you too,” she said. And even though I knew she only said it because I had, I savored hearing those words in my mother’s voice.

17.

4.   Frolicking (as seen in all of them, apparently).

8.   Date on a rowboat (as seen in The Proposal, 10 Things I Hate About You).

SAOIRSE

Ruby meet me at beach at 1 a.m.

RUBY

Mysterious

SAOIRSE

It’s time for No. 8

RUBY

I thought that was Saturday?

SAOIRSE

At 1 a.m. it will be Saturday.

I spotted Ruby before she saw me. I couldn’t make out her face in the dark, but I could tell it was her by the way she moved. I liked these moments of observing her when she didn’t know. It was like seeing a secret. When she got close I could see she was wearing old trainers and a pair of shorts with a trim of multicolored pom-poms. Her legs were long, and her thighs were thick and muscular.

“It’s so quiet,” Ruby whispered, even though there was no one around to hear her. It was dark, but you could still see black clouds swirling around pinprick stars. “It’s eerie.”

“I like it.”

“Me too.” Ruby shivered.

I took her hand and led her down the strand.

“This is beautiful.” She sucked in the sea air and lifted her head to gaze at the stars. “I think I can see my star from here.” She pointed at the sky. “But how are we going to do number eight?”

“Four and eight, I’ll have you know.”

“Four was?”

“Frolicking,” I reminded her. “I wasn’t sure what the hell we were going to do for that, but I figured it out. Two birds, one stone.”

“How so?”

“Well, Ruby, we’re going to steal a boat.”

She stopped walking.

“What?”

“A little bit down the way there are pedalos. We’re going to steal one.”

“You’re not serious?”

“When we first met, we stole someone’s beloved pet, and now you’re balking at borrowing a plastic bird?”

“What do you mean a bird?”

“Stop changing the subject. Are you in or not?”

She looked like she was thinking about it. She tossed her hair from one side to the other and then, with a determined look on her face, she nodded.

“I’m in,” she said.

When she saw the pedalos she laughed. They were shaped like swans, about ten feet high, and they were absolutely decrepit. I was certain they hadn’t been replaced since I was a kid and there was Sharpie graffiti all over them.

“OK, OK, it’s not a rowboat—”

“It definitely is nowhere near as dignified as a rowboat.”