My phone rang before six the next morning. Who would call that early on a Sunday? I rubbed my bleary eyes and looked at the screen. The number was unfamiliar and a strange configuration. I almost shut it off, but on a hunch, I answered the call.

“Charlotte, it’s Flynn.”

“Flynn? Is everything okay?”

“Aye. I think we should talk. Turn on your computer and call me.”

Ten minutes later, Flynn appeared on the screen of my laptop.

“What’s going on?”

“I think you should move to Kansas City.”

I laughed. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t laugh. I’m not jokin’.”

“I can’t move to Kansas City. My job’s here. My family’s here. And I don’t think Angus would even want me to.”

“Ah, he’d say he doesn’t want ya to, but I’d wager that what he wants and what he says he wants are two different things.”

I shook my head. “You’re crazy. This is what you wanted me to call you for at this hour of the morning?”

“Aye. And hear me out. I’ve been chewin’ on this all day.”

I was touched that he’d been trying to figure out a way to help me, but this idea was insane. “I’m listening.”

“You say you’ll wait for him to come back.” I nodded. “What about him? You might be willing to wait for ten years, but what about Angus? He’ll be meeting new people. He won’t be waiting around. If ya want to cook a chicken, ya have to put him in while the water’s boilin’.”

I snickered. “I don’t even know what that means, Flynn.”

“Sure ya do. If ya wait ‘til the water’s all cooled down, good luck cooking the bird. Right now the water’s boilin’.”

“No it’s not. He doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“That’s ’cause the water’s boilin’. If it weren’t, he’d talk to ya all day long. He’s just tryin’ not to get burned.”

There was an absurd and comforting logic to what he was saying. “Keep going.”

“There’s not much more to say. Move to Kansas City.”

“That’s easier said than done, Flynn.”

“Tell me this. What needs more attention? The things in San Francisco? Or the thing in Kansas City?”

I didn’t answer him. I didn’t know what to say.

“Charlotte, give him a grand gesture. Show ’im he’s more important than the things you’ve left behind.”

“Wow. I should never have answered the phone this morning.”

We laughed. “Think about it. It might work.”

“It might not. And then I’ll be two thousand miles away from my family and I’ll have given up the best job in the world and . . . It’s all so scary.”

“But you’re brave. And if it doesn’t work out, you can go back.”

“I thought you were my friend.”

Flynn didn’t say anything right away. He just smiled. When he finally spoke, his voice was soft. “I am.”