said, squeezing Teddy’s hand again.
“I can tell,” the nurse said with a nod. “She’s got your smile.”
Teddy knew that was impossible; she didn’t have Josie’s megawatt, room-brightening, day-making smile. The nurse was being nice to her because she had eye makeup all over her face. But in that moment, in the hospital room made cozy by Josie’s presence, she was willing to believe it.
After the nurse left, Teddy went to find Josie’s requested snack (Doritos, which seemed like an incredibly unhealthy choice, but Teddy wasn’t in a position to judge). And then she sat there, holding Josie’s hand, until Josie finally fell asleep.
62
Everett couldn’t focus as he packed for New York. As he paced around the airport. As he sat beside Astrid on the flight. The meeting was a blur—he talked about the show and its purpose, and he knew everyone in the meeting loved everything he was saying, even if he could barely remember their names when he shook their hands.
On the sidewalk outside the Imagination Network building, Astrid ran through what had just happened.
“That was a good meeting,” she said.
“Yeah,” Everett said, stunned.
“A really good meeting.”
“Yeah,” he repeated.
“Everett, this is . . . happening. The show. The Imagination Network.” She leaned in and stared at him. “Why don’t you look excited?”
Everett shook his head and rubbed his hands over his face. “I’m excited. Really. I just . . .”
He thought about what Natalie had said, about how there had to be more to life than work, about how maybe he could give work 50 percent instead of 100 percent. He hadn’t really understood her at the time, but now . . .
He thought about Astrid and Jeremy, how he’d been working with them for so long and how he’d be working with all-new people when the show was in New York. He thought about Jeremy working on some other show if he wasn’t around. He thought about Gretel and the way he’d changed his life to stay home with her once before, the way she’d cried and hugged him when she said she didn’t want him to move. He thought about his parents and how, as the saying goes, they weren’t getting any younger.
He thought about all the kids he could reach with a national show. All of the families he could influence, the emails he could answer, the feelings he could explain.
And then he thought about Teddy. Her laugh and her smile and her. The way that if he really did this, if he really moved, he didn’t know if things between them could ever be fixed.
“Hey, Astrid,” he said, suddenly calm, “do you think we can go back up there? I have something I need to ask them.”
63
The next evening, Teddy was working at the store. Josie was at home and recovering, which mostly meant a lot of grumbling whenever Teddy or Carlos reminded her that she needed to rest. Cold rain poured down outside, plastering the dead leaves onto the sidewalk and making Colossal Toys seem that much cozier. Thanksgiving was in a couple of days, and the holiday break combined with the bad weather meant that the shop was empty as Carlos restocked shelves and Teddy stared out the front windows from her place behind the cash register.
Normally, with no one to help and Carlos preoccupied, she would pull up an episode of Everett’s Place, but obviously that wasn’t a comfort for her anymore. That might’ve been the worst part of this whole situation—that her ultimate security blanket was now gone forever.
Or maybe it was that Everett had become her human security blanket, and now he was gone, too.
A man who looked like Richard cupped his hands around his face and peered into the shop. Teddy smiled thinking about how strange it would have been if Richard ever showed up at Colossal Toys, then stood up straight when the man walked in and she realized he was Richard.
“I see a smile on your face!” he said. “That has to be a good sign!”
Teddy frowned. “What are you doing here?”
Richard looked flustered, as if he’d expected a different response. “I came to see you. What else would I be doing here?”
“But you’ve never come to the shop,” Teddy said, confused. “Not when we were together. Not even when I asked you to. You said there was nothing here an adult man should ever need to buy.”
Teddy heard Carlos drop a box and curse quietly, but she kept her eyes on Richard.
Richard sighed. “Well . .