Carter.

“To take the place of the green plastic one you gave me junior year.”

Mrs.

Carter leaned forward, her hands still wrapped around her tea mug.

“You sat right by the radiator in my office every Tuesday afternoon,” she said, her voice soft and slow.

“You filled three whole spiral notebooks before the winter was over.”

“You were the only one in that building who listened to me back then,” Evan said.

He twisted his silver watch on his wrist, the metal catching the gray light from the porch window.