Ice cream after my driving test.
The dinosaur drawing.
Lunches when I couldn’t speak.
My porch after heartbreak.
Prom.
Ethan had never needed me to carry him through life.
Neither of us was carrying the other.
We simply kept showing up.
“SO WHAT’S THE CONDITION?”
Mom smiled through tears.
“Don’t go to prom because six-year-old Sophie promised Ethan.”
I blinked.
“Promise me you’ll go because eighteen-year-old Sophie chooses him.”
I laughed.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“I was never going because of a childhood promise.”
She smiled.
“I know that now.”
“The promise is why Ethan purchased a bow tie in November.”
That finally made her laugh.
WHEN WE WENT DOWNSTAIRS, ETHAN LOOKED ANNOYED
“You took forever.”
Mom walked straight toward him.
“Ethan?”
“Yes?”
“Can I have the first dance?”
His eyebrows shot upward.
“Mrs. Bennett…”
He looked around our living room.
