“I appreciate the offer,” she said, prepared to tell him no, only to remember the list. The list she’d created to help her friend, after which she’d realized that maybe getting out of her head and her rut wouldn’t be such a bad thing. “Can you hold on a second?”

“Of course.”

She put down the phone and raced into the small bedroom that had always been used as a study. She found the list on the desk, then ran back to the living room, only to stare at her cell phone and realize she could have brought it with her. Wow—she really was out of her element with pretty much everything.

“I would like to do something,” she said, scanning the list. House hunting was too strange and sex was completely out of the question. She hadn’t made up her mind about the tattoo.

“I don’t suppose we could go skydiving.”

Thaddeus laughed. “Unity, I have to tell you, I wasn’t expecting that. Do you like to skydive?”

“I’ve never been, but I’ve been thinking about doing it.” Or at least she’d written it down, which was nearly the same thing.

“All right. Would you accept indoor skydiving or does it have to be the real thing?”

“Indoor skydiving?”

“Yes. There’s a place by the airport. I’ve driven by it several times. Let me go online and see what’s involved, then text you the information.”

“I don’t have a phone that texts. It’s a long story.” She looked back at the list. “But I might be getting one, soon.”

“Good to know. Then I’ll call you with the information. If it works out, I’ll pick you up at nine Saturday morning.”

Skydiving. She was going to do it. “That sounds good. Oh, wait. That means you have to leave Bellevue really early. It’s a couple of hours’ drive.”

“I’ll come over the night before and stay with Dagmar.”

“Okay. Then I’ll wait to hear from you and I’ll see you Saturday. For skydiving.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

They hung up. Unity returned to the study and did a search for indoor skydiving. There really was a place, just like Thaddeus had said. She was going to do this.

She smiled to herself, thinking progress was good and she was making some. She was glad Thaddeus had called. They would go skydiving, she would check an item off her list and then he would bring her home. As for spending time with the man himself, well, she just wasn’t going to think about that.

The bus wasn’t the most comfortable ride, but it was for a good cause, Ellen told herself. The students all sat in the back half of the vehicle, giving the two adults plenty of buffer between them and their noise. Ellen made a place for herself in the front seat across from Keith, loosening the seat belt so she could sit with her back to the window and her legs stretched out on the bench.