Page 114 of Safe With You
Her steps slowed, and I made it another couple of feet before realizing she wasn’t beside me anymore.
When I looked back, she was watching me.
“Your wife?”
“My late wife.”
Luna’s expression changed. Not pity, at least not the kind I’d learned to recognize over the last three years. Just surprise.
“I didn’t know.”
“I figured.”
Her lips parted, then closed again, and I waited for what usually came next.
I’m so sorry.
A question about what happened.
Sometimes both.
Instead, Luna looked down the street for a second before turning back to me.
“Were the shoes at least cute?”
I stared at her.
Then I laughed.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing.”
“You keep saying that.”
“They were.”
“Then she had a reason.”
“She couldn’t feel her toes by the time we got back to the car.”
“Beauty requires sacrifice.”
“That’s what she said.”
Luna smiled, and just like that, we started walking again.
I appreciated that more than I knew how to explain.
“You were married,” Luna said after a few steps.
“Eleven years.”
Her head turned toward me. “Eleven?”
“Together longer.”
“How old are you?”
