They were married eight months after their first date.

I remember standing at that wedding and feeling two things at once, and being ashamed of the second one.

The first was joy, real joy, that my mother had found someone.

The second was a small, cold, professional unease that I could not explain and did not want, a faint sense that the picture was too perfect, the charm too total, the generosity too quick.

I told that second feeling to be quiet.