I put one hand on its back.

“Noah asked me to sit here.”

He glanced at his mother, and she looked away.

The first cars arrived a little before nine.

I was upstairs changing, with the bedroom door open and the sound of greetings rising from the foyer.

I heard Ethan’s polished work voice, the one he used to make a new person feel instantly included.

It was an ability I had once loved about him.

He could remove awkwardness with a question, a joke, a remembered detail.