“Hello, Austin,” I said quietly.

He swallowed hard. He didn’t speak. Instead he stepped forward, reached out, and gently took the handle of the blue suitcase from my hand.

A mundane gesture — carrying his mother’s luggage.

But it was the first time in his adult life he’d ever offered to carry my weight.

It was the heaviest thing he had ever lifted.

We drove to a quiet Italian restaurant. The silence in the car was thick but not hostile — the fragile awkwardness of two strangers learning how to speak to each other.