He set the bag on her nightstand.

“Brought you some peaches.

Had to drive two towns over to find them this late in the season.”

She laughed, soft and fond.

“You always were a terrible businessman, Thomas.”

He sat beside her bed for nearly an hour, and they did not talk much.

They mostly just held hands and let the afternoon breeze come through the window.

And when he stepped back out onto the porch, I followed him, and I asked him whether he had known she was sick before she moved to Phoenix.