They sat quietly on the couch for a while. Neither was quite sure of what to say, what was appropriate conversation for the two of them. She hoped that he didn't mention Marissa. He wondered if she still thought about Seth. They both knew well enough to not talk about Theresa, especially with her child in the next room.

"So you still see the Cohens a lot?" she asked finally, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, I still work at ALS, Kirsten's firm - it used to be Newport Group, remember? They changed the name for legal reasons but the company's pretty much the same. She's been doing really well." The words seemed to flow naturally but there was a hint of caution in them.

"And Sandy?"

"Sandy's had a hard time dealing with his mother's death-"

"The Nana?!" Shock and dismay coated Summer's words.

"Oh yeah, you knew her too." Ryan whispered in realization.

"Last June, Sandy went to New York and brought her back here. She lived at their place for a while. Nurses. Doctors. Everything." He swallowed. "She's one of the toughest women I've ever met."

Summer closed her eyes for a moment, her mind flashed back the memory of the Jewish firecracker she met all those years ago. When she opened her eyes again, Ryan could see the glimmer of tears.

"Was she..." Summer's voice cracked.

She bit her lip, hoping not to cry, wondering if Ryan found her strange for crying over a woman she had only met once.

Ryan bit his lip, looking at the crocodile tears forming in Summer's chocolate brown eyes, wondering whether he should comfort her or just let her muster up her strength.

"She's just one of those women you never forget," he said quietly, touching Summer's hair lightly.

"I'm sorry, I'm okay, I swear. I just got kind of choked up. I just never thought that anyone would, you know... while I was away."

She suddenly began to see herself as selfish and childish. She fled Newport because the problems of the little town seemed to great for her to handle. She never looked back because she knew moving forward was the right thing to do. Yet knowing that someone had died in her quest to move forward made the quest seem so stupid and infantile.

"You were away for a while..." Ryan started the thought, but didn't know how to finish.

Summer was quiet for a while, as if envisioning her whole life in San Francisco. The evidence of tears was gone from her eyes in an instant and instead they began to sparkle.

"Magical," she smiled. "Just magical."

XXX

He listened intently as she spun tales of Haight and Ashbury, of Union Square shopping sprees and of all the many adventures and misadventures on Castro Street. He laughed when she laughed. But mostly he just listened and stared at rapid movement of her pouty lips.

It had been a long time he stared at a woman that way. The only other woman he conversed with was Theresa and he didn't even have to look at her to know what she looked like. With his eyes closed, he could paint her every feature. He knew that, and half the time, he didn't even make eye contact with Theresa when they spoke.

But it had been so long since he last spent time with any other woman. With Summer only inches away, animatedly divulging details of her life, he couldn't help but stare.

And somewhere between the time he found out about her drunken trip to Alcatraz and the time she maxed out her credit card at Stanford Mall, he realized it. She was

"Beautiful," he thought out loud.

"So, like, I had no idea what to-" she paused realizing his interjection. "What?!" Puzzled, she stopped her story to stare at him questioningly.

"Uh, nothing." His eyes shifted away from her, darting around the room before focusing back on her dark eyes.

"Chino, you okay?" she asked, concerned. He felt like an idiot- since when was the connection between his brain and mouth faulty?

He nodded, though unconvincingly, encouraging Summer to continue with her story.

XXX

Chino was better than a diary. He listened to every detail of her stories- and she had quite a few. There were four whole years worth to tell him. But unlike a normal diary of lines and scented paper, he was human. He laughed at the funny parts and his bright blue eyes turned warm and sympathetic at all the right times.

And yes, his bright blue eyes weren't that bad to look at.

Actually, maybe it was just the fact that they had been separated for so long, but from the moment Summer saw him at the entrance of the mall, she couldn't help but notice that Ryan was looking good.

Really good.

Was this what fatherhood did to men? Ordinarily, she would have leaned in a little more while she talked. Flipping her hair and making sure her lips looked extra pouty. But this was Chino after all. And she was Summer. So it was useless... right?

Besides, his daughter was in the next room.

Ella, Ella. She was one of the best children Summer had ever met- not that Summer really spent that much time with small children. Usually, she couldn't stand to be around them for too long because... well, who in their right mind spends free time with a 4 year old? But Ryan's four year old was something else. She had an amazing charisma, a will to shop and the most beautiful blue eyes ever. Just like her father. The one that Summer couldn't stop thinking about.

But again, she reminded herself that he was a father.

So she continued on with her tales anyway, so preoccupied in wondering whether it was okay to be attracted to him, that she didn't even notice the way he stared at her.