“I said no,” I replied.

She opened the passenger door.

“That sounds like a beginning.”

As we drove away, I noticed that my hands were steady.

PART 10 — A Quiet Room at Laura’s

The first evening after the luncheon, I sat in Laura’s guest room and found I couldn’t remember what I had eaten.

All I could see was Kenneth’s expression when his relatives stopped supporting him automatically.

He had looked frightened, but not by the possibility of losing me.