“Still
single?”
“Yes.”
“Me too.”
I glanced at the ring.
Tears ran down his face.
***
I stayed with my best friend through the next day. We talked more in those hours than I thought possible. He told me about Peter and his daughter, Anna. I told him about my students and the years I’d spent teaching.
We talked about my mother, about Margaret, and even about my father.
I was angry with my father, but I also understood something I hadn’t understood at 19.
He told me about Peter.
My father
had been scared for me the way my maternal grandfather had been scared for my mother. Dad had made the wrong choice because he thought he was protecting my future.
Jeffrey had done the same thing.
So had I.
We’d all stayed silent because we thought silence was kinder.
It wasn’t.
My father had been scared.
