She looked at me for a long moment.

“You don’t want you to be disappointed. He’d be fine.”

I told him anyway, three days later, because I couldn’t hold it.

He was quiet about it in a way I noticed and didn’t examine, and then he asked if it meant I’d be home later at night, and I said probably a little, and he said okay and went to do his homework without being asked twice.

The interview was in September.

There were two of them, then a third with the regional director, and by the second week of October Danette told me the job was mine pending the background check, which she described, waving her hand, as a formality.