That I had adventures before him, and that I can have more.”

I held the bicycle steady while she stood beside it, smiling.

The scar near her jaw caught the late sunlight, but it did not define her face.

She was the girl who once painted bicycle tires green, the young woman who had wanted to become a nurse, and the mother who was learning to make room for herself as well as her child.

When the photograph was taken, Chloe looked toward me.