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Vivi lifted her hands. “I can’t afford to stop working. And I doubt this guy is going to track me along the forgotten highways and byways of America.”
I turned to Nell. “Doesn’t that leave you all alone in Williamsburg?”
Nell shook a finger in negation while she savored a mouthful of her dessert. “Not at all. I’m being good, I promise. While Vivi’s gone, I’ll stay at my thesis advisor’s apartment. She knows what’s happening, and she has a doorman building on the Upper West Side with good security. I’ll be safe there.”
I nodded. “Okay, good. Even so, I get the sense that you two aren’t taking the danger seriously. I think you should both disappear for a while. Lay low.”
Vivi and Nell exchanged somber glances. “We can’t afford to stop our lives like that,” Nell said. “Nor can either of us afford to hide out anywhere.”
“You could come here,” I offered rashly. “I have two spare bedrooms. I’d be happy to have you. Until this thing is definitively handled, anyhow.”
All three women stared at me, openmouthed.
Vivi recovered first. “Uh…wow, Liam. That is incredibly nice of you.”
“But you can’t take me up on it, right?” I glanced at Nancy. “Gee. Where have I heard this song before?”
Nell made an airy gesture with her hand. “We’re just like that. Those D’Onofrio girls. Stubborn as goats. But really, thank you so much. It’s good to know that we have a place to run to if things get weird.”
“You do,” I reiterated. “Anytime. It would be fine.”
“Thank you, Liam.” Nancy’s voice caught. Her eyes were shining. It made my heart thud heavily with some emotion I did not dare examine.
Vivi dabbed her napkin to her nose. “Well,” she said soggily. “I see why Lucia hand-picked him for you.”
“Yeah,” Nell said. “She always did have perfect taste.”
My face had gone beet read. “Uh. Yeah. Whatever. You ladies want coffee?”
“Not for me,” Nell said. “Vivi should have a cup, I think, since she’s the driver. We should be on our way.”
We walked them out. Nell and Vivi hugged their sister, whispering into her ear until she snorted. Then they took turns giving me tight hugs with a hard thump on the back for good measure. They got into Vivi’s Volkswagen van and took off.
When the lights of the vehicle had disappeared, Nancy looked up at me. “Damn, Liam,” she said. “You really pulled out all the stops. That meal? My God.”
I shrugged, sliding an arm around her waist. “It was a pleasure. I liked them.”
“I think they could tell.” She turned to face me, pressing her face to my chest. “Thanks for being so sweet. But inviting them to live with you here? Wow. A heads-up would have been nice.”
“Sorry.” I nuzzled her hair. “It just came to me. There’s room. And I want them to be safe. I want you all to be safe. I want to fix this goddamn thing for you.”
“Thank you for wanting that,” she said. “But if they had said yes, it would have seriously cramped our sexual style. You know that, right?”
I snorted with laughter. “Ah. Guess so. Just as well they blew me off, then.”
Nancy’s smile faded. “Lucia should have been at this dinner tonight,” she said. “Telling us her stories. Holding forth. Ordering us around.”
“That would have been great,” I said. “I can see her, looking proudly around the table at her crowning jewels. Three beautiful daughters that she hand-picked herself.”
Nancy’s laugh was soggy. “Right. From the thrift stores and pawn shops.”
“It doesn’t matter where she found you. Like Nell said. She had perfect taste. She knew a treasure when she saw it. Never forget that.”
“I miss her so much,” she whispered.
I held her close, and we swayed on the porch to the song of the crickets and the wind. Painfully aware of how dangerous it was to care this much about precious, delicate, breakable human beings. So easily hurt, so easily destroyed.
It was terrifying, but together, we were strong enough to let ourselves feel it.