She watched me open the same drawer twice.
“The albums are on the counter,” she said.
“I know.”
“Then why are you looking in there?”
“I thought I put the engagement picture away.”
Ruth came around the table.
I opened the album.
Fifth grade.
Eighth grade.
Graduation.
Lauren wearing the ridiculous paper crown from her eighth birthday.
Then an empty plastic sleeve.
The engagement photograph had been there.
I knew because I’d looked at it almost every morning since Lauren gave it to me.