“I couldn’t keep reading the words that stole you from me.”
It sounded heartbreaking.
At the time, I thought it was.
Helen called that evening.
I declined the call.
She called again.
I turned off my phone.
The next morning, she came to my door.
“Sis? I know you’re home.”
I stood behind the curtain and didn’t move.
Danny touched my shoulder.
“Don’t hate her because of me.”
I looked at him.
“She stole fifty-five years from us.”
“We don’t have enough time left for hate.”
That sentence convinced me more than almost anything else he’d said.
What kind of liar defended the person who had supposedly ruined his entire life?
If only I’d realized I was asking the wrong question.
Over the next three weeks, Danny and I became nineteen again.
Almost.
We talked until midnight, remembering people I’d forgotten and places that no longer existed.
“Remember the diner?” he asked.
“Remember spilling a milkshake on my dress?”
“You bumped my arm.”
“You were staring at the waitress.”
“I was staring at you.”
I laughed.
“Still a liar.”
His phone buzzed on the table.
Danny glanced at the screen, then turned it facedown.
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
“No.”
“Who is it?”
“Someone from my old life.”
Something in his tone made me pause.
Then he smiled and took my hand.
“That life doesn’t matter anymore. This one does.”
I wanted desperately to believe him.
So I did.
A few nights later, Danny held both my hands.
“Why are we dating at seventy-five?”
I laughed.
“What should we be doing?”
“Getting married.”
I stared at him.
“Danny…”
“You’re already my wife.”
For the first time in fifty-five years, I stopped thinking only about what I’d lost.
Instead, I started thinking about how much time I might still have.
We planned a tiny backyard wedding.
Danny wanted it soon.
Very soon.
Around the same time, he began asking practical questions.
“Is the house paid off?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a will?”
“Why?”
“We’re not twenty anymore, sweetheart. We should know how to take care of each other.”
“You’ve thought about this a lot.”
“About us? Of course.”
“I meant the money.”
He smiled.
“Same thing at our age.”
It sounded reasonable.
At least, I wanted it to.
The day before the wedding, I invited my family over and announced our surprise.
