“Because I loved her so much that I couldn’t imagine what I’d do if she asked me to step away.”

I ran my thumb over the picture frame.

“She never did.”

“No.”

“Then maybe we were both afraid of losing something she had already given us.”

He looked at me for a long time.

I pulled down the brightest purple sample and held it against the wall.

“She would’ve picked this one just to annoy us,” I said.