Unity interrupted him with a sigh. “Amari? Is that her name? It’s beautiful. She was really pretty, huh?”

“Yes, she was.”

“That’s nice.”

It had been but right now he was more concerned about her lack of jealousy. If nothing else, Unity was doing an excellent job of keeping him humble.

“I was doing odd jobs when someone we knew mentioned open auditions for a show I could be in.”

Unity smiled encouragingly. “Did you try out?”

“I did.”

“And you got in?”

He nodded.

She smiled happily. “That’s so great. What was the show?”

He had no idea what she was going to say or do, but knew that she was likely to surprise him.

“I was a stripper.”

Unity waited for the rest of the sentence. Some addition that would change the meaning. Like “I’m kidding. I worked as a clown.” But Thaddeus only watched her watch him, as if gauging her reaction.

“A stripper?” she asked.

He nodded.

“You took off your clothes.”

“Down to a G-string.”

“I don’t know what that means,” she admitted. “I understand all the words and I know what a stripper does, but you can’t have been one.”

“Why not?”

“Because I know you and it’s just too unexpected.”

Their server returned with their food. Unity immediately reached for a french fry. A stripper. She tried to picture it, wasn’t sure if she wanted to, then realized even if she did, she couldn’t.

“I have no experience with strippers,” she admitted. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” He picked up his burger. “I did it for about seven years. The money was good, especially after I became a headliner. I put myself through college, bought a house, moved my mom in with me.”

“If you made that much money, you must have a really great body,” she blurted before she could stop herself. “I’m not sure I could earn enough to buy a coffee if I took my clothes off.”

He’d just swallowed and started to choke. Unity watched him anxiously until he motioned that he was fine.

“It’s not about perfection,” he told her. “It’s about making the audience happy.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t do that, either. How did you get into investing?”

“Someone I knew was starting a business and needed cash. I helped him out. The business took off. I invested in a few apartment buildings and they did well. I got a divorce and my mom passed away the same year. That’s when I packed it up and moved to Seattle.”

“To be close to Dagmar?”

“She’s my only family. I tried to get her to move over to Bellevue with me, but she’s a stubborn lady.”

“She loves Silver Pines. She would never leave it.”

“That’s why I make the drive.”

Stripping. She couldn’t imagine. “Was it difficult to do? At the audition?”