No question there. “I’d have said yes.”
“Ah.” His quiet satisfaction was apparent. “Well, why don’t we hold the thought? Or bring our kids on our first date.”
He made her laugh so easily. “Let’s do that. I’ll sound out Cait. You do the same with Trevor.”
“Got it.” The smile was there again, which warmed her. “Did we talk out your mood?”
“Yes, I think we did. Thank you. You’ve been a lifesaver.”
“When I wasn’t threatening you with my buddy the superintendent.”
“Do you know him?” she asked, curious.
“Yes, he put an addition on his house a couple of years ago. I’m not so sure he’d agree that the fact that I wired it made us best buds, though.”
The call ended on another laugh. Molly was left wondering what she would have said that night, if Richard had taken her by surprise the night of the dance and asked her out.
* * *
TREVOR STOOD IN THE DARK, looking up at Cait’s bedroom window. Her blinds were closed, but not tightly. He could see that her light was on.
He’d expected to have to climb over their back fence, but found he had been able to reach over and unlatch the gate. Light poured through the kitchen window and the French doors, so he’d had to move carefully to reach the back of the house without getting spotlighted like a deer by night hunters. Now he cautiously eyed the possibilities.
They had an arbor, too. Not as sturdy as Dad’s, but doable. It didn’t reach quite underneath Cait’s window, either, but he thought he could knock on the glass. If she’d open up, he could grip the sill and swing himself up.
Assuming she didn’t freak, of course. Scream. He’d left the back gate open for a quick getaway, in case.
Was this a totally dumb-ass idea?
No. He had to talk to her. As far as he was concerned, she’d chosen the time and place. Dad said she’d checked out adoption agencies last weekend—without telling him a word about it. He especially wanted to talk before they both got to participate in the nice, civilized dinner party put on by her mother. Because that would relax him and Cait, sitting down to eat under their parents’ eagle eyes.
Do it, he decided, crouched and jumped. Easy as a slam dunk, his fingers locked over the rough wood of the crosspiece. He dangled for a moment, swung and, when the momentum was right, levered himself up. He sat atop the beam for a moment, then rose to a crouch, toed over to the house and braced an open hand on the siding. Okay, now, if he leaned…stretched… Yeah. He rapped lightly on the glass.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the blinds were parted and he saw her face. He waggled his fingers. Blinds snapped shut. He waited, until finally they rose and then she opened the window.
“Trevor?” she whispered.
“Yeah, can I come in?”
“Are you nuts?” Her hair was tousled, her face scrubbed clean, making her look even younger than usual and she wore… Wow. Some kind of saggy-baggy T-shirt thing.
He kept his voice low. “No. I want to talk to you.”
“Now?”
“When?”
“What if my mom comes in?”
“Does she?”
“She’s watching a TV show. She probably won’t come up until it’s over.” The answer was grudging. Cait stuck her head out and looked down and then sidelong to where he stood atop the arbor. “What if you fall?”
“I won’t.”
She rolled her eyes but relented. “Oh, fine.”
He got a grip okay, but there was one distinct thud as his feet hit the side of the house. Cait and he both went still. The strain on his shoulders was huge. Even so, he let a good minute pass before pulling himself up and half falling through the window.
Cait immediately let down the blinds and pointed to bare floor behind her bed. “Sit down there. If Mom comes, drop flat, okay?”
“Sure.” He sat, back to her bedside stand, and stretched out his legs. He couldn’t see all of her room from here, but enough. It was almost as girlie as Bree’s at Davis’s house. A couple of posters of ballerinas were the eye-catchers. One was doing some kind of leap and seemed suspended in air. Impossible and dazzling, he had to admit. Another was being lifted by a guy, who looked gay in tight dance clothes but obviously had some serious muscle.
Otherwise, her bedspread was fluffy and powder pink, there was a barre like at the dance school screwed into one wall intersecting with the one that had floor-length mirrors on the closet doors and the whole room was completely neat. Unreal.
She plopped on the bed cross-legged and looked down at him. She was not happy. “Say whatever it is you want to say.”