Chapter 10

“Baby, I—”

“Miss Jessica, while you were busy drooling, did the sociologist in you notice how I was looking at you? How you were looking at me?”

“Um. Well, I guess so.”

“That’s exactly how it is when they’re together. When my mom looks at Miss Baxter and Miss Baxter looks at her. I don’t think we’re rushing them into anything. We’re just giving them a little nudge is all.”

“Okay. Okay, sure. So…it’s a collar, then?”

“Symbolically. I think that’s the way it was from the start. The old photographs. The reverence in the way my mom looks at it. Whether they thought it through or not, I don’t know.”

“And what are we doing with it?” I asked.

“I think you should slip it to Miss Baxter so she can give it to my mom later.”

“Why do I have to do it? I mean, you’re the one who snagged it from your mom in the…” I got distracted by Moona hooking the little ring with the fingernail of her pinky.

“You want to play with this when it’s healed?”