I read the dedication several times.

It was a gentle sentence, and for once it did not require me to pretend Whitney and I had always been close.

When I visited Beatrice and Richard the next weekend, I brought the book with me.

Beatrice read it aloud while Noah made delighted noises at every page.

Richard fell asleep in his chair before the fox reached home.

We teased him afterward, and he insisted he had been listening the entire time.