The sentence hung there, an uninvited guest.

“I’m low on olive oil,” she said, her eyes wide, almost feral. He’d gone too far, too fast. “And I’m due to pick up Maggie in twenty minutes. Do you think you could run to the grocery?”

He went to the grocery, his pulse racing. When he returned they spoke no more about it.

They went to Mohegan Bluffs. One hundred and forty-one steps down, the same back up! Anthony noticed he wasn’t out of breath when he got to the top, the way the people in front of them were. Day after day with no alcohol, the biking, the sunshine and sea air: he was losing the Depressed Man softness around his midsection. He had a tan!

They hiked out to Rodman’s Hollow. Anthony read the sign out loud. PLEASE RESPECT IT SO THAT ALL—HUMAN, CREATURE, AND PLANT ALIKE—MAY SHARE IN ITS PEACE AND BEAUTY. Now he was also smitten with Rodman, whoever he may have been.

They went to the 1661 farm and petted the alpacas and met the star-horned sheep. They ate calamari at Poor People’s Pub and ice cream at the Scoop Shack.

They ate at Eli’s: tomato and burrata salad, ginger-rubbed swordfish. After, they sat on a bench near the ferry terminal, watching the drunk people. A young woman in stilettos and a bright blue sundress wobbled into her companion.

Joy leaned over and kissed him. She’d had two glasses of Sauvignon Blanc at Eli’s.

Now, he thought.

“I have something to tell you,” he said in a small voice.

Joy pulled back and looked at him. “Are you a murderer?”

“What? No. Of course not. Why would you think that?”

“You look so serious all of a sudden.”

“It’s not that.”

“Okay, then,” she said. She resumed kissing him.

“It’s just that I—I’m not . . .”

She stopped again. She whispered, “Let me guess. You’re not who you say you are.”

His palms started to sweat; his ears started to sweat.

“Oh, boy,” she said. “I got you, huh? You look terrified. I’m kidding, of course.”

“You know what?” he said after a beat. “Never mind. It’s nothing we can’t talk about another time.”

“You sure?”

He couldn’t tell her.

“I’m sure,” he said. He put his hands on the sides of her face and pulled her gently toward him.

Chapter 27

LU

JEREMY WAS HOME for dinner. It was a real treat! Lu had made a Thai mango salad with peanut dressing. It was very simple, but the mangoes made it feel exotic. In fact, that’s what she’d be writing in her post.

You know how passionate I am about eating foods that are fresh and local. The butter lettuce I used in this recipe, for example, came from my local farmers’ market. So you might be surprised to see that this dish also features succulent, ripe mango, which is not exactly indigenous where I live. I admit it, these mangoes caught my eye in my local grocery store and I couldn’t help myself. Did you know that almost half the mangoes in the world are grown in India?