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Her expression was sad. “I love you, Alex, and I love our kids,”
she whispered. “And it would break my heart to think that you’ll
never be completely happy again.”
“Carly—”
“I want you to meet someone new.” She struggled to take a deep
breath, her fragile rib cage heaving with the effort. “I want her to
be smart and kind… and I want you to fall in love with her,
because you shouldn’t spend the rest of your life alone.”
Alex couldn’t speak, could barely see her through his tears.
“The kids need a mom.” To his ears, it sounded almost like a plea.
“Someone who loves them as much as I do, someone who thinks
of them as her own children.”
“Why are you talking about this?” he asked, his voice cracking.
“Because,” she said, “I have to believe that it’s possible.” Her bony
fingers clutched at his arm with desperate intensity. “It’s the only
thing I have left.”
Now, as he saw Katie chasing after Josh and Kristen on the grassy
shoulder of the duck pond, he felt a bittersweet pang at the
thought that maybe Carly had gotten her last wish after all.
* * *
She liked him too much for her own good. Katie knew that she
was walking a dangerous line. Telling him about her past had
seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and speaking the
words had freed her somehow from the crushing burden of her
secrets. But the morning after their first dinner, she was paralyzed
with anxiety by what she had done. Alex used to be an
investigator, after all, which probably meant he could easily make
a phone call or two, no matter what he’d said to her. He’d talk to
someone and they’d talk to someone and eventually, Kevin would
learn of it. She hadn’t told him that Kevin had an almost eerie