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My knee-jerk reaction was to tell him I’d show him how.Fortunately, I reined that instinct in.I didn’t know his health status.I didn’t know his physical or emotional state.And becoming a marathon runner was grueling.I barely managed, and I’d been doing this for years.“Yes, twenty-six miles is brutal.But…do you want to walk a mile?We can see how close you get to that tomorrow.You have good walking shoes.”

He bit his lip and color crept into his cheeks.“Anthony helped me buy a high-quality pair.I told my doc back in LA I’d start walking.I told Arthur too.He made me promise to exercise Wally regularly.But I don’t know if Wally could walk a mile.”

“Good point.Why don’t I calculate one mile—so half a mile there and back.We’ll head out, and if you or Wally starts to tire, we turn around and come back.And if Wally can’t make it, we call a cab.Or I come home and grab my SUV and scoop you two up.”

“I don’t…” He sighed.“I don’t even really have a concept of what a mile is.I mean…no, I don’t.Where I grew up?Everything was in eight square blocks.Our house, the grocery store, the school, and the gas station where I worked.Sometimes I would go to the next biggest town, but we always needed a car because it was almost an hour away.I have no conception of what that is in miles.And in LA…” He winced.“I didn’t get out much.Or at all.”He whispered that final sentence.

“Okay.”I wanted to pull him into a hug at his expression of misery.“Why don’t you take Wally outside to do his business, and then we can hop into my SUV and drive half a mile?So you can get a sense?”

“I walked home from the library.”

I did some quick calculations in my mind.“Okay, so let’s drive that as well to see how far that was.More than a mile, I promise.And you’re still in one piece.”

He appeared to perk up at that with a little smile teasing his lips.“Really?Yeah, okay.”

“Let’s get Wally out first.We can gauge how you two are doing in the time it takes him to poop and go from there.Let’s take a bottle of water.Plenty of the vendors along the boardwalk have bowls of water for dogs.”

Wally perked up.Apparently he understood he was a dog.

I snagged my water bottle, filled it with cold water, and headed for the door.“Oh, we should wear baseball caps.Do you have one?”

He shook his head.

“Well, I happen to have quite a few.Do you mind wearing a Dodgers’ cap?”

“Nope.We didn’t have a team in Oregon, and since I never watched television, I didn’t even know about the Mariners.”

Although I continued to make my way to the front hall—because my caps were in a basket in the closet there—that brought me up short.What kid wasn’t raised on baseball?And didn’t know the closest team?And never watched television?None of your business.Let him come to you…if he wants to.

“Ah.Being halfway between San Diego and LA, I always had divided loyalties.In the end, my dad convinced me to side with LA.”I yanked two caps out of the basket.“I should’ve offered you a choice—LA or San Diego?”I dug a little farther.“I also have LA Kings, San Francisco Giants, and Oakland Athletics…”

“The Kings?”His eyes flashed bright.“I love hockey.”

“Great.”I handed him the cap and plopped the Dodgers one onto my head.I eyed his glasses—which most of the time I didn’t even notice since they fit his face perfectly.

And man, I found glasses super sexy.

“Do you have your sunglasses with you?”

He shook his head.

“Let me see…” I dug around in the basket and retrieved a pair of clip-ons.“Maybe not the best, but my mom’s always forgetting hers.The glasses she wears are a highly specific and very expensive prescription, and she doesn’t want to spend the money getting a pair of sunglasses made as well.So she keeps clip-ons.Except she often forgets them.”

“So these are your mom’s?”

I hesitated, but only for a moment.“I have three of them.So I’m gifting one to you.”I hadn’t intended that…but it made all the sense in the world.One couldn’t live in SoCal without keeping sunglasses handy.

“I didn’t mean?—”

“Well, I did.Mom will be tickled pink.”One of her traditional expressions she liked to trot out.“I can pick up another five at the store the next time I’m there.”

When he hesitated, I indicated his glasses.

He removed them and handed them to me.

I affixed the clip-ons, pleased to find the fit just about perfect.

Or so you tell yourself.