Frank declared that any object so far away deserved a warm coat.

The conversation became wonderfully chaotic.

At one point Preston noticed Naomi watching him across the table.

There was affection in her expression, and caution too.

He returned a small smile, not asking it to mean more than it did.

He thought of Constance alone in the vast lakefront house, of the letters she had hidden, and of all the years he himself had traded evenings like this for meetings that blurred together.

He had not erased the past.