He’s looking a little frantic now, and I know I shouldn’t push this too much further. He hasn’t had a panic attack in a long time, and I want to keep it that way. “I don’t… know?”

“Okay,” I say with a shrug. “Caleb, napkins are our friends.”

Caleb grins at me. “I’ve got ice cream on my eyebrows.”

I snort as I dab my napkin in my water glass and hand it over to him so he can clean himself up.

“That’s it?” Noah asks, sounding incredulous.

No, that’s not it, because I’m pretty sure there’s more, but I’m not going to push it. “That’s it.”

Lily and he have another eyebrow conversation, and just when I’m about to resume eating, Lily sighs and says, “You might as well tell him now. I mean, they’re going to find out eventually.”

Bingo.

And I’m also a little worried now.

Noah looks even more nervous than before, searching my face for something. But then he steels his shoulders, and there’s a stubborn set to his jaw that I can’t help but be proud of. People underestimate Noah Thompson. They shouldn’t.

I don’t even have to look under the table to know Lily’s got a tight grip on his hand. It’s just how they are.

“It was for a boy,” my son blurts out.

Yeah, that’s not what I had expected to hear today.

He looks stunned, like he’s surprised at his own words. He opens his mouth, trying to speak again, but no sound comes out. He closes it again.

“A boy,” I say, struggling to keep the smile off my face, because he’s legitimately scared for reasons I don’t quite understand. “Like, he wanted you to get it for him?”

He snaps his head from side to side so quickly, it looks painful.

“Is he pressuring you for it?”

Another no.

Oh, kid.

Even Caleb is watching his brother with interest, milkshake forgotten.

“Do you go to school with this boy?” I ask.

Noah starts to shake his head but then seems to change his mind and nods instead.

“Would I happen to know this boy?”

Noah glances at his sister, who smiles at him encouragingly. “Yeah,” he croaks out when he looks back at me.

“Hmm,” I say, pretending to think. “Oh! Would this boy happen to be Ethan?”

His eyes bulge just a little at that.

Yeah. Got you.

Ethan Lundgren. The kid a year above Lily and Noah. Popular and handsome and seemingly playing the role of the stereotypical jock who had one day last year followed Noah home with a dreamy look on his face, much to Noah’s bewilderment, and had never really left.

It wasn’t that hard to spot the fact that Ethan had a crush on my son.