“She loved this place,” Marcus said, kneeling beside her.

“Is the house mine?” “Someday, when you’re older,” he said, “you’ll decide what you want to do with it.” Lily looked out at the waves.

“I want Grandma to have the big room upstairs,” she said.

And from the kitchen, Evelyn pretended she hadn’t heard, and wiped a tear from her eye, and Marcus laughed, a real, lighthearted laugh, for the first time in what felt like years.

That evening they ate clam chowder on the porch, and Lily talked endlessly about her class, and Evelyn told an embarrassing story about Hannah as a teenager, and Marcus felt a peace return to his life that he had thought was gone for good.