Page 158 of The Forbidden Center

“I do.”

“You know your school.”

“Mostly.”

“You know Gabi.”

“Everybody knows Gabi.”

“That is unfortunately true.”

“And I know Colt.”

He puts a hand against his chest. “Finally.”

Tova looks at him. “You still buy terrible cereal.”

“You still eat it.”

“That doesn’t make it good.”

“That’s exactly how product demand works.”

“It’s cereal.”

“It’s economics.”

She makes a face at him.

She is sitting in my kitchen insulting Colt’s cereal as if there has never been another place she could be, and she still misses Sweden.

“Three weeks,” I say.

Tova stops.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

She is off the stool before I finish the word.

The relief on her face hurts.

I let it.

She puts both arms around me, and I hold her hard enough that she laughs into my shoulder.

“You are going to visit,” I say. “Not disappear.”

“I know.”

“If you want to come home early, you tell me.”

“I will.”

“And if you love every second of it, you can tell me that too.”

She pulls back.