He had been there the whole time, becoming this man, right beside me in the dark, and I had missed the entire becoming.

That is the gift nobody tells you is hidden inside a long marriage gone quiet: the person is not used up.

They are simply unwatched.

And the moment you start watching again, there is a stranger to love, and the strangest, sweetest part is that the stranger is the same person you married, who has been faithfully turning into someone new the whole time you weren’t looking.

Chapter 16 — In Time