“Now.” Joy grips his arm, pulling him into the hall and taking him to the living room couch.

“Joy, I need to finish—”

“Malcolm, you need to sit down. Now, tell me what’s wrong.” She hasn’t let go of his arm, nor does she plan to.

“Nothing.”

“Oh really? You know, today was a lot of fun. I had a semi-wonderful time. Did you?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t lie to me. You’re obviously upset, and we should talk about it so it doesn’t fester.”

“I don’t want to do this right now.”

All Malcolm needs from her is support. She can give that to him. She can give that and mean it. Straight from her heart.

Joy takes a deep breath, decides on a tactic, and goes for it. “Okay, fine. Let’s talk about tomorrow. Are you ready or are you having second thoughts because Summer keeps messing up your perfectly choregraphed trip?”

Malcolm seems surprised. “Who said that?”

“No one needs to say it because I know you. I ditched you during horseback riding, Summer tried to ride with Fox in the helicopter, and she did ride with me in the golf cart after deciding to skip the museum. I know you’re upset about that.”

He frowns. “ ‘Upset’ is a strong word.”

“A word that fits.” Joy squeezes in closer to him until their shoulders are pressed together. “I shouldn’t have to say this, but I’m going to: you can’t force people to always follow your lead. People are unpredictable, Malcolm. Plans will change. Things can go wrong.”

“It’s not about force.” He grimaces. “It’d be nice if people would just trust me. When I plan things a certain way, it’s for a reason.”

“If people don’t know what those reasons are, you can’t blame them when they decide to do what they want. It doesn’t mean they don’t trust you, but it does mean you’re not communicating with them.” Joy laughs, breathy and fast. “Only one person can read your mind and she’s sitting next to you. Even I’m only right eighty percent of the time.”

“It is kind of creepy how we can do that.”

“It’s not creepy. It’s practiced. We just know each other well. Too well.” She sighs. “Why didn’t you email Summer an agenda too? Why didn’t you ask for her input or help on anything? You can’t treat her the way you treat me. I know I can trust you because it’s been ten years. You’ve known her two months. You can’t jump into the deep end without doing the work first just because your endgames align, Malcolm.”

“Endgames?”