“Not knocking anything.”

“Grant brings me watermelon-flavored stuff a lot, actually. It’s sweet. Watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Watermelon gelato. And he asked me bigger stuff too, by the way.”

“Like?”

“Like beach or mountains?” She heard the bitterness suffusing her tone.

“Beach,” said Leo. “A thousand times, beach.”

“It was actually a tough decision,” she shot back. “In my law days, I used to go on hiking vacations too. I did Kilimanjaro, did you know that? And part of the Camino de Santiago.”

“I didn’t.”

“Yeah.” The fight deflated from her. “But I did choose beach.” She hated giving Leo that satisfaction. Like she was so simple to deduce. Joey tried to remember Grant’s other questions. At the time it had seemed magical, the way he’d revealed her to herself. This was the first time it felt a little bit stupid.

“City or country?” she eventually said.

“Country. I can’t believe you lived in Manhattan, Jones. Someone’s gotta fire your college career counselor.”

The anger reared in Joey. “Guy on top or girl on top?”

Leo crunched his face. It didn’t feel nice, having said it. “That one I’ll leave to Grant,” he finally said, and she didn’t reply.

For a while, the sea was the only one doing the talking. Joey downed her drink. At last the fuzzy outline of land filled the horizon.

Leo finally said, “And how’s it going with the wedding?”

“Great!” she said, forgetting for a moment where she was, and with whom. The stock answer accustomed to being trotted out echoed against the hull, swept back out to sea. Echoed. Echoed.

“I haven’t been able to sleep the past few nights,” she finally admitted. Don’t ask me why. Don’t ask me if I want to get married because the answer is I do. If ever in my life I am meant to become a wife, it’s now, to this man, and I don’t want to betray Grant by discussing it with you.

Leo said, “Oh.” Casually. Like she’d explained how she operated her dishwasher. “What does it feel like?”

“What does it feel like? It’s a dream I’ve been having, and it feels like I’m the only person in the world.” Leo nodded, and then she realized he was motioning his head to the wave hurtling at them. A curl of ocean slapped Joey’s face.

The boat hopped a few times like a bunny rabbit and then sailed forward on level sea. Leo said, “You have this dream.”

Joey scraped sea-drenched hair from her face. “Just a few times. It’s a weird dream.”

“I can do weird.”

“It’s just, I’ve been dreaming about two deserts. They’re both massive, like the Sahara. That red-orange color and just, sand in every direction. And in between the deserts is a canyon. Sorta like the Grand Canyon, in size.”