DeeDee put her dog on the sidewalk to return Hope’s hug, and the tail wagged the little dog while it sniffed at the hem of Hope’s dress. It ran to me when I stepped onto the sidewalk and sniffed my boots until DeeDee picked her up again.
“You have Dolly’s approval,” DeeDee said, but I wasn’t paying her much attention. I watched Hope. Her eyes were rimmed with red.
Hope glanced from DeeDee to me, and her eyes settled on my coffee. “Did DeeDee set this up,” she asked, “or were you in on it too?”
“First I heard was when I bought this coffee.” I offered Hope my cup. “A little hand warmer?”
“Thanks,” she said, and took the cup without touching my hand. “I’ve been on my computer all day. I need the eye-opener more than I need the hand warmer.”
DeeDee set Dolly on the sidewalk again and tugged her leash to keep her close. “I’m here to walk the dog. I don’t know what y’all are doing.”
Dolly tugged DeeDee down the familiar route toward the plaza, and Hope used the coffee cup to gesture after her. “Maybe we should walk the dog with her.”
We didn’t have much to say at first. We walked side-by-side without trying to catch DeeDee and paused at the corner where Hope dropped the empty coffee cup into a trash can. She was close and warm beside me when we started walking again, and I asked, “What are you working on?”
She answered me with a flip of her hand. “Tying up all those meetings I had with the Diné and sketching ideas. As big as that tribe is, they’re really close-knit. It’s like a family fight when they disagree. I’m trying to channel their angst, and it isn’t working.”
I smiled at Hope’s reflection in the windows we passed. She gestured as we walked. “I’ve been on the phone over and over with people out there just to understand the background. Sometimes it’s like one guy’s grandmother didn’t get along with the other guy’s grandmother, and the families haven’t agreed on anything since.”
We stopped by the old mission and let traffic pass. Hope stroked my arm and said, “I saw you on TV last night. You sounded tired.”
DeeDee picked Dolly of the sidewalk and waited at Alameda. “I suppose ‘tired’ goes with the schedule,” I said. “About to start the last week of the session, and now everyone has tunnel vision. It’s hard to find common ground.”
I motioned across the street to the State Land Office. “Those are the people I’m dealin’ with now, and they don’t think they need to deal.”
DeeDee laughed and rolled her eyes when we stopped on the bridge over the little river. “I go out of my way to get you together, and you talk about work. You’re supposed to talk about your relationship.”
“Relationship?” Hope asked. She looked up at me and used her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “Do we have one?”
I couldn’t really answer that question. “You need a hat,” I said.
I caught Hope’s hand and pulled her across the street before she stopped me. “Dammit, Adam. That’s not an answer.”
“Is that for me to answer? You and Henry were going to think about it. What did you decide?”
DeeDee caught up with us and made a little show of whispering in Dolly’s ear. “Auntie Hope has been talking to her vibrator again.”
Hope gave DeeDee a look meant to shut her up, and she shielded her eyes from the sun again. “We decided that if you could care, then I could care, too.”
Now I didn’t need to answer that question. “You need a hat,” I said, and caught Hope’s elbow.
“That’s it?” DeeDee asked. She stayed close behind us as we passed La Fonda. “What kind of answer is that?”
I paused at the corner to look back at DeeDee. “What did you expect? A proposal?”
“No!” she said. “but maybe a proposition.” She followed us across the street to the hat shop. “And, my God, not a hat—maybe candy or lingerie.”
Hope laughed at DeeDee, and the scent of leather goods rushed from the shop when I opened the door. “I’ve never been in here before,” Hope said. She passed the racks of belts and hat bands to the display of cowboy hats, and she stopped in front of the women’s western hats. “You’re right, I need a hat.”
“You know,” I said, “They can make them any way you want.”
That cued the sales woman. She stepped up and introduced herself as Amethyst. “Call me Amy,” she said, and I stepped back while Amy took over. Hope liked tan. She liked the broad-brimmed fedora style. She liked the beaded hatband with the Navajo motif. DeeDee and I followed when Amy led Hope to the fitting chair, and we watched all her meticulous measurements.
Hope stayed in the chair while Amy put her tools away then she straightened her back and asked, “What’s this going to cost?”
Amy looked from Hope to me. “With that hat band, about six hundred and tax.”
Hope wasn’t ready for that. She bolted out of the fitting chair and turned on me. “You can’t buy me a six-hundred-dollar hat. I won’t take it. I won’t wear it. What were you thinking?”
I held my hands out and shrugged. “Thought you needed a hat. Why can’t I buy you a hat?”
“That hat would be like your brand on my butt. If you want to buy me a hat, then buy me a straw bonnet.”
Dolly barked at Hope’s raised voice, and Amy backed away. DeeDee shifted Dolly into her other arm, hooked her hand around my elbow, and said, “You can buy me a six-hundred-dollar hat any time you want.” Hope glared at DeeDee and left the shop door swinging behind her.
“Oops.” DeeDee said.
Hope stopped with her back to the windows and wrapped her arms around her shoulders while DeeDee juggled her phone. “I’m calling an Uber. We’re not going to walk back.”
Amy and I watched DeeDee catch up with Hope. “I guess that’s a ‘no,'” I said.
She covered her mouth and stifled a little laugh. “I’m surprised we got that far. Your girl doesn’t look like the type to wear a beaver felt hat. It wouldn’t have been ready much before Christmas, anyway.”
Amy stopped herself from throwing the measurements into the trash. “I don’t sell straw bonnets, but I have an off-the-shelf straw fedora styled like the one she picked out,” she waved the slip of paper, “In her size and with that hatband, it’d cost about one-fifty.”
I watched Hope and DeeDee through the window and asked, “Could it be ready by Valentine’s Day?”
“Could make it so.” Amy stepped back to look me over. “That’s a Stetson?” she asked. “We can’t fix that.”
Clouds to the west were starting to hide the sun; the afternoon had grown cool and gray. DeeDee set Dolly down and took a step down the sidewalk, and Hope surprised me. She squeezed close and slipped her hand under my jacket. She rested it on my hip, and said, “I’m sorry. I should be able to say ‘no’ without throwing a fit.”
“Got over it,” I said, and inhaled Hope’s warm scent. I touched her chin when she looked up at me. “I think you’d look great in a straw bonnet.”
A gust of wind swirled dust out of the gutter and around our feet, and DeeDee sneezed into her sleeve. “God this is an awful time of year. We need to do something fun.” A car stopped on the street. “Uber’s here.”
“Be there in a second,” Hope said and looked up at me. “Are you coming?” I shook my head, and she gave me a little smile. “There’s too much to get done right now, but I can think of a lot of things to do when it’s all over.”