He cocked an eyebrow. “Is that it? Or do you not want your fancy neighbors to see us together?”

“Well, it is a gossipy place,” I said.

Greg ducked to avoid a low-hanging branch. “Just don’t give them anything they can hold over you.” I was glad it was dark so he couldn’t see my embarrassment. Did Greg somehow know I’d told Kendra about the job? He’d always had an uncanny way of figuring out my innermost thoughts, plucking them out and highlighting my worst fears. “Joking, kind of.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “This does bring back memories, though.”

“Agreed. I was just talking about those dinners you used to have at your house every month.”

“Until Grady nearly choked on a peanut.”

My hand flew to my mouth. “Oh my god. I’d forgotten about that.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the memory. “Everyone was trying to do CPR on the poor guy, and then it popped out—”

“Right into MaryBeth’s wineglass,” Greg finished.

“Poor Grady.”

Greg jabbed me playfully with his elbow. “The only thing that freaked me out more was when you called me that time from the emergency room to come pick you up.”

I groaned. “It was urgent care, but yeah. Bees and me don’t agree.” How stupid I’d been to go down to the lake, in a field of clover, without my EpiPen.

“Anyway, enough about the past,” Greg said. “The present is so much more interesting. Like our kids. Lily and Ellen have really hit it off, it seems,” he said. “You’ve done well.”

“Thank you.”

“Adam seems to be doing well.”

“Yeah, you think so, too?” I asked. “He really does love the job.”

“My dad hasn’t said one grumpy thing about him, which is a high compliment, you know.”

I stopped on the path. Above us, somewhere in one of the rows of town houses, a man shouted, and a dog barked. I lowered my voice. “Greg, I feel kind of bad for asking you to help out with that.”

He threw me a lazy smile. “Oh please. That type of thing happens all the time with these high-profile jobs.” His broad shoulders seemed to block out the moon.

“Maybe.” I bit my lip. “But it’s Adam more than anything else. He’d be furious with me if he knew. He’s so ethical about stuff. Never cuts any corners.”

“A Boy Scout, eh?”

I nodded. “An Eagle Scout, actually.”

He laughed. “You sure know how to pick ’em, Theresa.”

We started walking again. It was colder now, and my hands and cheeks were numb. Above us, a passenger jet’s lights blipped as it soared past. When Lily was a toddler, she’d thought they were aliens keeping watch over us.