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Surprising ot up from her chair and sat in ently Beyond her, the rest of the world was out of focus, and in the waning light, as if dise back to me

"I do, too," she said "Love you, Ithis story when Jane’s voice broke in

"Why are you s?" she asked

She stared at ht; we had filled our plates in the kitchen, and I hadn’t bothered to light a candle

"Do you ever think about the night you cao to Harper’s?"

"That was after you got the job in New Bern, right? And you said you wanted to celebrate?"

I nodded "You wore a strapless black dress"

"You remember that?"

"Like it was yesterday," I said "We hadn’t seen each other in about a ot out of the car"

Jane looked faintly pleased I went on "I can even re when I saw you"

"You can?"

"I was thinking that the year we’d been dating was the happiest year I’d ever had"

Her gaze dropped to her plate, then ed on

"Do you reot you? For Christs," she said, her hands traveling absently to her earlobes "You bought s I knew they were expensive, and I reed that way"

"How do you know they were expensive?"

"You told me"

"I did?" This I didn’t re For a moment we ate in silence Between mouthfuls, I studied the curve of her jawline and the way the late evening sunlight played across her face

"It doesn’t seem like thirty years have passed, does it?" I said

A shadow of that old familiar sadness flitted across her face

"No," she said, "I can’t believe Anna’s actually old enough to get oes"

"What would you have changed?" I asked "If you could?"

"In uess I would have tried to enjoy it "

"I feel the saenuinely surprised

I nodded "Of course"