“Want to take a walk?”
“Sure, you warm enough?”
“Next to you, always. You’re like a walking, talking furnace.”
“BYOH. Bring your own heater…which way?”
“I haven’t come up here much since that night. I take the long way around, mostly.”
“Do you want to walk past the arena?”
“The university put up a memorial on the first anniversary, and Laurie comes every year on the date it happened. I don’t know what she does. I guess she sits there and wishes she’d arrived earlier, made the girls leave earlier. Who knows?”
“You two both cope the best you can, I’m sure.”
We’d made our way to the intersection in front of the arena. “That’s where I dropped them. They looked so cute.” Claire pointed to the walkway in front of the building. “Their small butts, swinging back and forth. That’s the last thing I remember seeing. Laurie and I tried to see Shelby and Olivia once. We wanted to see how much they’d grown. That they were happy. But their parents said no. Said it would be too painful for them.”
I pulled Claire tight, careful not to crush her ice cream. “It’s been a long night, and I don’t want to end with us being sad. I know you care so much for everyone, but for one moment, I want to care for you. Let’s eat our ice cream and remember Abby’s butt swinging on her way to her first concert. She’d want that.”
“Okay,” she agreed without further rebuttal, reaching up on tiptoes and taking a lick of my ice cream.
“No fair.”
“Here.” She held out her cone.
We stood there for a while, taking turns licking each other’s ice cream.
“Come on, you’re freezing,” I said when I felt her shiver against my flank.
“Now what?”
“Home. My home, if that’s okay? I’d like to be just us tonight, if that feels all right to you. I don’t mean Smitty, he can come. I mean the memories…in case you thought…”
“I knew what you meant. Come on, I’m sure Smitty will love getting dog hair all over your sofa.”
“That’s the beauty of leather. Wipes right off.”
“Hmmm.” He had a point.
