It could not explain away twelve years as though time had passed without decisions.

There were times I ended a call earlier than usual because I was tired.

I told her that was why, rather than leaving her to guess whether I had withdrawn the invitation.

We were learning not to make another person’s uncertainty do the work of an honest sentence.

Three weeks after my visit, Samantha and Toby were in Minnesota.

Their arrangements were not a fairy-tale solution.

There were boxes to unpack, schedules to consider, and a child adjusting to another place while grieving his grandfather.