To:Addie
No more going out in nightgowns then?
Toni
From:Adelaine
To:History Toni
Not unless you will be there to keep me safe. ;)
Addie
From:History Toni
To:Addie
We may define safe differently.
Toni
From:Adelaine
To:History Toni
I felt safe with you. No regrets on my side. You?
Addie
From:History Toni
To:Addie
Only that I didn’t have a second day there.
Toni
Toni could have meant a million different things,Addie told herself. She did not ask “Where?” or “Why only one more day?” She did not say, “I could visit.” There were a lot of thoughts that followed every time Addie reread their email chain, but at the end, she was at a loss for words. What was there to say?
Tell me your last name.
That was the thing Addie wanted to say often, but she was afraid that if she tried to rush her, Toni would vanish entirely. And that was a risk she wasn’t willing to take, so she settled on safer topics.
From:Adelaine
To:History Toni
I told you about my work stuff. What’s new with you? Conferences? Teaching anything fun?
Addie
Toni sent her longest reply yet on that topic. Asking her about work seemed to do the trick that nothing else did, so Addie researched a little more and started asking questions for her role. It wasn’t exactly a normal way to go about hoping to move toward dating, butnormalwas apparently not how Addie’s life worked.
Sooner or later, Addie believed that they would meet again—even if Addie had to fly to DC for a made-up reason or attend another conference.
Chapter 8Toni
“Lil? Mom?” Toni walked up so she was alongside her mother. Lilian was a petite woman, barely over five feet tall. Thin, delicate like a tiny doll, with soft gray hair that fell to her waist. Toni paid extra to have the caretakers keep Lilian’s hair the way she liked it, because the mention of cutting it off had set her mother to wailing.
