I was warm.

I was relaxed.

I was a wife on the last night of a lovely family vacation, a little sun-tired, looking forward to going home.

Across the table, Julian held court the way he loved to, telling a long story about a client, his hand resting now and then on mine.

He was in high, expansive spirits.

He believed he had won.

He believed the box was undisturbed under the bed and his wife was none the wiser and his brother-in-law would sign at breakfast, and that belief made him generous and funny and almost unbearably pleased with himself.