Neither of us could promise that every conversation would be comfortable.

Sometimes it wasn’t.

When she brought up Marjorie, I still heard the envelope on the porch.

When I brought up the account, Claire sometimes looked as though I had dismissed everything she had discovered.

We had to stop and say which part we were discussing.

The records could be worth pursuing.

The secrecy could still have hurt me.

Her mother could have worked hard to keep a house going.