Chapter 15 - Twenty-Three Roses
By the following year, I had replanted the garden.
Twenty-three climbing roses.
One for every year Robert and I had shared that home before his death.
Daniel helped.
Jessica helped too.
Rosa supervised everyone while doing almost no physical work.
“I am management,” she announced.
“You're seventy-three.”
“Exactly. Promotion.”
We laughed.
That sound mattered.
There had been laughter around my pool the day I returned too.
But that laughter had made me feel like a stranger.
This laughter included me.
When we finished planting the final rose, Daniel stood beside me.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“I've been thinking.”
“Dangerous.”
He smiled.
“I don't want the house.”
I looked at him.
“Good, because I'm using it.”
He laughed.
“I mean eventually.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Still using it.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Yes.”
“I don't want to spend the rest of your life thinking about what I get afterward.”
I touched his cheek.
“Then don't.”
May you like
It was that simple.
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