She smiled cautiously.

After class, I sat alone for a moment, staring at the empty chairs.

I had spent sixteen years hearing that my best days were behind me.

At forty-two, I’d just finished one of the best mornings of my life.

PART 16

Dennis appeared outside the nonprofit two weeks later.

He was leaning against a dark sedan when I left work, wearing a tailored jacket that looked wildly out of place beside the library’s faded brick wall.

“Colleen.”