your heart. They see what’s happening.”
I looked away. “Let them talk.”
“That isn’t what worries me.” She touched my arm. “I’m worried you’ve needed help for so long you might not notice when help turns into something else.”
I went back to work. But the sentence followed me all day.
THE PARTY
Gerald had invited the whole office to his house that Saturday. He knew I had nobody to watch Lily, so he told me to bring her.
“She likes coming here anyway,” he said. Then, softer: “Especially because of Nathaniel’s mug.”
That mug had become an odd little ritual. Years earlier, Nathaniel and Gerald had taken a road trip to Lake Thornwood. Nathaniel bought a battered travel mug somewhere along the way. Gerald somehow ended up keeping it.
After Nathaniel died, Lily became fascinated with it. Every visit, she reached for it. Maybe because it had belonged to
