He proposed six months after our first coffee.
He looked genuinely nervous.
"Maybe this is fast," he said, "but some things are obvious once they arrive."
I said yes before he finished asking.
Peter came over the next evening.
My children didn't celebrate.
Peter came over the next evening.
Elise came with him.
"Mom," Peter said, "none of us has ever seen Harold’s real home or met one person from his life."
Elise folded her hands.
But all I heard was that they didn't trust me.
"And some of his stories keep changing. Ruth James says he transferred before graduation. Please postpone the wedding for thirty days. If we’re wrong, we’ll apologize."
Thirty days.
That was all they asked for.
But all I heard was that they didn't trust me.
"I’m seventy-one," I snapped. "Not helpless."
Their reactions should have mattered to me more than it did.
