“Doesn’t everyone?” I ask fondly. She and Lucy and I—and Hanna, when we follow the rules—have become thick as thieves and spend loads of time together. Lucy’s not here today, though, because she hates boats, and she hates them extra much now that she’s pregnant and has morning (read: all-day) sickness. We found out about the pregnancy a couple of days ago—at the same time we learned that she and Gabe are engaged. Needless to say, we’re all over-the-moon excited.

“Did you hear the big news?” Amanda asks.

“Wait, there’s more besides Lucy being pregnant and engaged?”

She nods, eyes gleeful, and lowers her voice. “Clark has a girlfriend.”

Brody’s shaking his head. “No way.”

“He does. I saw it with my own eyes.”

Brody’s eyebrows are drawn together so tight they form a monobrow. I’m with him—even though Clark no longer seems quite as stricken as he did when I first came back to Rush Creek, he’s said on more than one occasion that there’s no way he’s ready to get back in the saddle. His brothers are super respectful of that, and I’ve never seen any of them try to fix him up. Amanda and his mom, not so much.

As Amanda moves along, possibly to share her gossip even further, Brody’s puzzled expression smooths out a bit. “Do you think…?” he begins, then stops. “No. He wouldn’t.”

“What?” I demand.

“He wouldn’t.”

“Brody, you know that’s not fair! You have to tell me.”

“Well, I just—I’m just remembering this one time we talked about it and he said something…” But then he shakes his head again, and returns his attention to watching his son scoot the garbage truck along the bottom of the boat. Needless to say, Barb is preening like a peacock about the fact that her gift has “won.” Until Justin grabs the shoes and shakes them and demands to have them put on his feet.

“I just have a feel for what little kids love,” Rena tells her competitors proudly.

It’s going to be a long sixteen-and-a-half years with this crew, and I’m going to love every minute of it.

Once I finish extracting intel from Brody.

I punch him in the arm. “Tell me what Clark said. Right this second.” He’s still a man of few words, and sometimes I have to pry every one out of him.

“He said…” Brody lowers his voice. “If I thought it would shut Mom up? I’d get a fake girlfriend. Let me know if you find anyone who’s in the market for a pretend relationship.”

“He was just kidding,” I say. “Right?”

Brody and I look at each other. “He had to be. It was a long time ago, anyway. It doesn’t mean anything.”

But he still doesn’t look sure.