“I know. I saw him on the system.” John wheeled his finger around in a vague circle of everything. “You know, from the text alert. So I came back. Uh, you know, try to get here before he left.”

Her mother nodded. The security system was still a sore subject, but after the thing, she’d wanted it left on. For now. “Why didn’t you just call him?”

“I did.” John dropped his shoulders and the tension slid from the rest of his posture in a ripple that went all the way down his arms, his legs, out his shoes, into the floor. Carly felt herself relax with it, like yawning because someone else had done it. She stopped when she realized it and wound the springs back tight in her. Still not normal.

“I just got ahold of him. We’re going to maybe get in a game of racquetball. So I need my stuff.”

Carly’s mother stifled a giggle. “You’re going to play racquetball with that guy?”

John smiled back. His smirk was more artful than her mother’s, less nice, but it was the cutest face he had. “Why is that funny? Because he’s bigger than me? Nah. Big doesn’t help you in racquetball. It can be a disadvantage, really. Big and slow. I’m fast.” He swung at an invisible serve, all smiles now, loose in the joints, putting on a show. “And you should know—I’ve never been beaten at racquetball on my home court.”

Say racquetball again and I am totally going to lose it, thought Carly. Nope. Not. Normal. “Hey, can I get a ride to the library?”

Her mother turned to Carly. “I thought you said Emma couldn’t today.”

“No, it’s just me and Ada this time.”

“I really gotta fly, Carly. I’m late already,” said John. “Sorry.”

“But it’s on the way,” said Carly.

“Can you just please walk?”

“Yeah, no problem,” Carly said with sunshine in her voice and no trace of her earlier sass, wanting him to comment on her reversal of attitude. He could applaud it or give her some crap about it, just something. Just notice it. Because he did. She knew he did.

“Thanks, kiddo.” John went to get his gym bag.

“I just need to get something out of the car,” Carly told her mother.

She texted Ada on her way to the door: I’m coming to your house in ten minutes.

In the driveway, Carly opened the door to John’s car, silenced her phone, and slipped it into the seatback pocket.