Lily and June stood near the back wall, shoulder to shoulder.

When I looked toward them, they smiled in the identical way that still surprised me.

Afterward, we packed away chairs together.

There was no dramatic announcement, no check held up for photographs.

Just people stacking dishes and asking who needed a ride home.

PART 16: The Wooden Box Comes Home

Later that evening, I placed the wooden box on the shelf above my desk at home.

It sat beside a photograph of the girls at seventeen, the age I had been when they were born.