He saw her shoulders rise and fall in a sigh. “No, you weren’t. Honestly, I don’t think it’s quite real yet. Today I spent doing all the stuff you have to do. Calling the funeral home, the lawyer, insurance company. You know. All that crap.”

He’d had to do it a couple of years earlier when his sister died, so he knew exactly what she was talking about.

She continued, stirring the sauce with more force than was probably needed. “I still have the friends and family calls to make. Those will be the worst. Most of them know what was really going on, and I’m dreading the mix of pity and awkward comments. At least his parents are dead. They never liked me.”

She put down her spoon and just leaned against the counte...

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