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"It means she already likes you. You haven't even gotten there yet and she already likes you."

He thought about this. "Because she invited me."

"Because she invited you."

He nodded slowly, reassured, and looked back out the window. About thirty seconds passed.

"And Mr. Renzo’s going to be there, too?"

"Renzo's going to be there."

"I like Mr. Renzo." He said this with the tone of a man confirming a long-held position. "He's funny."

"He thinks he's funny," I said. "There's a difference,” I muttered loud enough for my son to hear.

James giggled.

We came around a curve and the road opened up. I could already see the top of Renzo's roof through the tree line, which meant we were close, and I had approximately two minutes before the hand-off, and then approximately thirty-five minutes in the truck by myself before I got to Zoe's. I was looking forward to both.

"Dad, are you going to have ice cream with us after dinner?"

"Not tonight, Bud. I'm going to have dessert when I have dinner with Zoe."

James absorbed this. "Why can't Zoe just come pick strawberries with us? And see the blossoms? And then we could all have ice cream."

There it was.

"Because I want to spend some time talking to Zoe by myself."

"Like quiet time?"

I frowned. Was he thinking like ‘time-out’? "A little bit like quiet time."

He was quiet himself for a moment. "Bubba explained quiet time."

I had no idea where this was going. When it came to Bubba, it could be anywhere. "Did he?"

"He said sometimes adults need quiet time with no kids so they can whisper and stuff." James was studying the passing trees with great seriousness. "He said his mommy and daddy told him and Austin and Jill and Cleo that they needed quiet time, and then he saw them kissing in the kitchen."

I kept my eyes on the road. "Is that right."

"Yeah." A pause. "Dad, are you and Zoe going to kiss?"

I opened my mouth.

The gravel of Renzo's driveway crunched under my tires and I have never in my life been more grateful for the existence of a driveway.

Renzo and Millie were already coming out the front door, which was exactly the rescue operation I needed. Millie was small and dark-haired with the kind of energy that would immediately put my son at ease. Renzo was grinning in the way that meant Angelica had definitely told him something.

I got James out of his car seat and he went straight for Millie with confidence.

"Hi," he said. "I want to climb a tree."

Millie crouched down to his level without missing a beat. "I have just the tree for you."

James turned back to me with an expression of complete vindication. "She likes me."

"Told you."