At the cemetery gate, Daniel stopped.
“Rebecca said something to me near the end.”
I waited.
“She said, ‘You can’t keep people alive by watching them.’”
A shiver moved through me.
“She knew.”
“Yes.”
“She knew what you were doing.”
“Yes.”
“And you still did it to me.”
He looked at me.
“I spent years believing I’d learned from losing her.”
His eyes filled.
“I think I actually built my entire life around refusing to learn the one thing she was trying to teach me.”
That night, I opened Rebecca’s letter.
Alone.
Emily,
You probably don’t remember me.
You helped me pick a detective novel in the rain.
My brother was with me. He pretended not to notice you after we left the store, which is how I knew he had noticed you very much.
I smiled.
Rebecca continued.
Daniel worries.
This is not news if you’ve gotten to know him.
