I laid the rose back down on the white napkin.

“And what about your work at the store?” I asked.

“I talked with the assistant manager yesterday afternoon,” Bob said.

“He can run the hardware floor for seventy-two hours without me there.”

“And what about Uncle John?”

“Uncle John’s stable,” Bob said, looking me dead in the eye without a blink.

“Last night the nurse told me he won’t need a visitor this weekend.”

He reached out to touch my silver pendant, but his thumb grazed my collarbone instead and fell back to his knee.