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“Mommy’s bookshelf”

Relief flooded her so thickly Lacey sat back She grinned for real Then it occurred to her that his father could have told him to say that, could even have rehearsed it with hi on their way to see her

“Was she in the room?”

He shrugged again, and she realized her question could be confusing In the roo where he’d been told not to go? Or when he fell?

“Before you started to climb, I meant”

He shrugged again And rather than upset him, she let the matter drop

Levi finished the puzzle At her invitation he wandered around the roos A plastic tic-tac-toe board A car track with little cars—not as elaborate as the one he had in his room at home, but still worth a little boy’s notice

Lacey put the puzzles back on their shelf, washed her hands in the sink and sat at a pint-size plastic picnic table “You want a snack?” she asked, holding out a shortbread cookie she’d just taken from the cupboard

He looked at the cookie, shrugged and pushed a car on the track

“What kind of ice creaht?” His father had told him that they’d have some

“Chocolate I get chocolate Daddy gets ’nilla”

Leaving the cookie on the table, she sat down on the floor with him “In a cone or a bowl?”

He shrugged again

“Do you ever eat so much it hurts your stomach?”

Another shrug