Eden shot him a warning look.
“Oh, could you?” Annelise clasped her hands again. “We’re having a raffle and everything to raise money for a new baseball field. Mom is donating flowers. But Caitlynn Pennington’s mom is donating a whole fancy dinner and a getaway at a hotel in Black Oak.”
“Not in Black Oak!” Jasper gasped.
Annelise nodded dismally.
“I can do better than that. I can give you a signedguitarto raffle.”
Annelise froze.
Then she sucked in a dramatic, long breath. “Seriously?” she said in that squeaky register only ten-year-olds seemed able to achieve.
Jasper didn’t even flinch. His hearing probably wasn’t what it used to be, anyway, from proximity to all those Marshall Stacks.
“NO. WAY.” Annelise gripped his wrist and gazed earnestly into his face like she’d just had a religious conversion.
“WAY.”
They froze that way in a moment of communion.
Annelise was clearly thunderstruck by her luck.
“It’s in two whole weeks. On a Friday night! We’re going to have a table and Mom is doing the flowers and it’s going to be so much fun! You can maybe even sit with us!”
“Maybe so,” he said, rather noncommittally, and with an eye dart that made Eden’s radar ping with alarm.
“Mom, did you hear?”
“I heard,” Eden said rather grimly.
Then a ding on his phone made Jasper spring up. He’d probably set a timer.
“Well, lovely girl, I’velovedspending time with you, but I have to get going. Can I have a hug?”
He knelt again. Annelise hugged him goodbye with something a little closer to her usual abandon.
This time, Eden couldn’t see his expression.
He stood up so fast his bracelets jingled frantically. “We’ll talk again soon, okay? Fist bump, daughter of mine?”
Annelise put out her fist to be bumped.
They smiled at each other.
And then Jasper didn’t quite bolt for the door, but he sure got there in a hurry.
“Honey, why don’t you play A minor while I talk to Jasper?” Eden said to Annelise, and followed Jasper.
He paused there. “Thanks, Eden,” he said. “For... all of this.”
His eyes were glazed. She could have sworn he’d even aged ever so slightly.
“You did great for a first go-round. You look a little shell-shocked, though.”
“Yeah?” he said distractedly. “Wow, she’s just... it’s just... wow.”
He pushed his hands through his hair.