Page 262 of ClickBack

His smile comes slowly. “You like them?”

“I do.”

“Good. Because I’m keeping every damn one.”

I laugh, relieved in a way I had not expected to be. He rests his forehead against mine.

“You have any idea what you’ve been doing to me all night?”

“I was watching.”

“You missed some things.”

“Then show me.”

He looks at me, and I feel the full attention of the man I married. He holds out his hand.

“Come on, wife.”

July

Zion has put a wooden sloth on the entry table and is moving everything else to accommodate it.

“It’s a keychain,” Rae tells him.

“It’s a gift.”

“Then put it on somebody’s keys.”

“It’s for their house.”

Jarrett picks up the carving, turns it over, and places it beside our wedding photograph. Zion looks vindicated.

“I think it works,” my husband says.

Rae looks at me for help. I adjust the frame to give the sloth more room.

“You two are no good,” she says, and goes to find the bag Jeremy has already put in the car.

We have been back from Costa Rica for less than a day. The trip was for the thirteenth birthday that happened while Jarrett was still playing. Eight days of water slides, late dinners, and Zion discovering that knowing the Spanish words for ice cream gives a person considerable independence. Javon joined us for part of it. Trina was determined to get everyone onto a zip line until somebody put a harness in her hand.

Now she is in the car, claiming we are going to make them late for their flight to Charlotte. Jeremy checks his watch and keeps loading without answering her.

Rae returns for her sunglasses, which are on her head. I point, and she gives me the look I used to give my mother when I had been caught doing something she would remember.

“Don’t.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were storing it.”

Jarrett laughs from the doorway. Rae hugs me and stays there a little longer than she used to.

“Call when you’re settled,” I tell her.

“You’ll be on a plane.”

“Leave me something to listen to when I land.”