He had been polite both times.
Warm, actually.
He asked about my work and seemed genuinely interested when I mentioned that I’d helped manage a school office before retiring.
I’d assumed we would become better acquainted after the wedding planning settled down.
Now I realized there had been plenty of opportunities.
They simply hadn’t been offered.
We found another picture.
Lauren at twenty-three.
Books piled around her.
A pencil behind her ear.
She was pretending to study at my kitchen table.
Ruth laughed.
“She hated this one.”
“She said it made her look messy.”