“Very lucky,” Tris said. “I envy them.”
“Do they miss your small town?”
“Dad does, but he has buddies down in Florida, and they like it there. And they have each other.”
His words sounded so wistful that Jecca reached out for his hand and held it. His fingers were long, like a piano player’s—or a surgeon’s, she thought, and smiled. “Did you always want to be a doctor?”
“Always,” he said. “I never had any doubts at all. Mom loves to tell people that the only thing that relieved my teething pain was Dad’s old stethoscope.”
He kept his hand in hers as she felt his palm, his wrist.
“Tomorrow . . .” he said softly.
“Yes?”
“We could go on a real date. I could pick you up in my car and we could go out to dinner.”
“And order something delicious and drink wine?”
“That sounds good, doesn’t it?”
Jecca hesitated. It sounded very good, but it also seemed oh so very ordinary.
“Artists love whatever is different, don’t they?” he asked.
“Not just to be different, but I do like creative things.”
“All right,” he said. “No formal dates like other people. But what do we do when the moon comes out?”
“I don’t know. I thought maybe Virginia didn’t have a moon.”
“Virginia is for lovers, but we haven’t progressed that far. In case you didn’t want a regular date, I looked at some moon charts.”
“Did you?” His hand clasped on hers. “What did the charts say?” she asked.
“We have another night of dark, then the moon starts to show. By the fourteenth it will be quite light outside.”
“I guess that means we’ll start seeing each other.” As she said it, she looked toward him. It had settled into a quiet, steady rain outside, and the little room was growing cool. He tugged on her hand, pulling her toward him, but she resisted.
“We can’t,” she said.
“I’m a very patient man.” He settled back against the wall. “What do you plan to do tomorrow?”
“Start my watercolors. Kim wants me to do a series of a dozen paintings that she can use in a new ad campaign.”
“I know.”
“How do you know?”
“Kim’s mother told my dad when she went to his office. He called Mom and told her, she told Addy and my sister told me. The Edilean gossip drums.”
“Did anyone tell you what I’m going to paint?”
“We all agreed with Kim’s idea of the orchids.”
Jecca laughed. “Everything by committee. What are those weird-looking ones under the bench?”
“Paphiopedilums.”