Page 102 of Wreckage and Rain

We stop at the end of the booth. Colt looks up. I tip my chin at him. He tips his back. Summer slides in next to him. Summersays something to Autumn in a tone of finality that suggests they have, at last, agreed on a city. Colt leans his head down so it is almost touching hers and says something I can't hear, and she snorts into her drink and elbows him in the ribs and he laughs. Autumn looks up at me and smiles and winks at me. I wink back at her and go back to the bar.

Behind me, Dominic exhales like he just remembered to.

"Marisol is up."

"I have eyes."

"You look like you are about to combust."

He stands. Smooths the front of his jacket. Walks to the front row. Sits in the seat he has made his own. Marisol doesn't glance at him when she takes the stage. She never does. But when she finishes the number, the very last beat, when the lights go out and the audience erupts, Dominic stands and claps and Marisol, in the second of darkness before the houselights, allows herself, for the first time since he started showing up, to look directly at him.

He doesn't see it.

I do.

***

After the show, the room empties out in stages. The last of the Saturday crowd settles their tabs. The dancers drift to the dressing room to change. Marisol comes out with a wide-awake Lucia on her hip, the toddler having gotten her second wind from the music, and Lucia spots the corner booth and screams, "WUCY SEES AUNTIE."

"Inside voice."

"WUCY SEES AUNTIE."

"That is the outside voice."

Summer is already standing. She holds out her arms and Lucia leans dramatically out of Marisol's grip toward her, and Marisolpasses her over with the practiced motion of a woman who knows the angles.

"Hello, my love."

"Auntie's hair."

"Lucia, no."

"Auntie's HAIR."

Lucia gets two fistfuls and Summer winces and laughs and Autumn is taking pictures on her phone like a woman documenting historic events, and Colt is sitting in the booth watching this whole tableau with an expression I have decided to translate, charitably, as I have no business in this scene but I would die before I left it.

Marisol slides in next to Autumn. "What are we deciding."

"The book tour," Autumn says.

"What about it."

"Summer thinks Knoxville is optional."

"Knoxville is not optional."

"Thank you, Marisol."

"Knoxville is where my cousin lives. She runs an indie bookstore on Gay Street. If you skip Knoxville, my cousin will fly to Chicago and find you, Summer."

"Fine. Fine. Knoxville is on the list. I am going to die on this tour. You can put that in the acknowledgments. To Marisol, for killing me with kindness."

"Better than sincere," Autumn says.

"I will hit you."

"Try it."