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knees as though for support. “All three.”
    “But I only gave two options.”
    “But I also understand you, so that’s three.”
    For several more minutes, they sat in silence, once again their eyes communicating without words, but the conversation remained deep and full of understanding. At last, he spoke again. “My wife didn’t understand me. We married young. I loved her, so I tried to be someone she could understand. People said she brought me out of my shell, but…”
    “But trying to be someone you weren’t drove you deeper into yourself than ever before?”
    His hands squeezed into fists instinctively. “I really tried, but I realized that by trying to become more extroverted, I was really pulling away from her.” Jonathan dropped his head. “I eventually had to explain it all to her.
    “She tried to understand, but she didn’t, did she?”
    With an almost imperceptible shake of his head, he sighed. “No.”
    “She loved you.”
    Jonathan’s head snapped up, and his eyes bored back into hers once more. “Do you think so? How could she? She never knew me. I didn’t let her choose whether to marry me or not. She married a fraud.”
    Cara seemed to choose her words carefully. “She married you. Just like any marriage, there were parts of you that she didn’t fully understand, just as you didn’t understand parts of her. Yes, you tried to be something you weren’t, but not to deceive her. You did it to please her. That’s an admirable motive, not a despicable one.” She paused, allowing her words to sink in before she continued. “How did she die? What was her name? What do you miss most about her? What did you miss in your marriage that you hope for in the future? Tell me about you.” Then, with a saucy grin, she added, “I have to get all the information out of you while you’re willing to talk, you know.”
    “Lily was tall, slender, and shy. She talked a mile a minute if she knew you well, but otherwise she was your proverbial wallflower—happy to blend into the background if it meant protection from notice.”
    “How did you two ever get to know one another?”
    He smiled at the sigh his rumbling laugh produced. Lily had been like that. She had loved his laughter—considered it one of his best assets. Cara’s reaction inferred that it hadn’t just been prejudice. “I met her in a group study in college. We were working on a project. There were six of us, and three didn’t show. The other guy was disgusted and said to reschedule, but Lily and I decided to do a lot of the research so we wouldn’t be behind. I think the fact that I kept quiet made her comfortable, because she started talking.”
    He paused and took a deep breath. “Something about her—she seemed delicate, almost fragile. She was so kind. I wanted to know her, and for the first time in my life, I was willing to do something about it.”
    “For the first time? I don’t understand.”
    A blush stole over his face, reddening his neck and giving him a slight rugged look that completely changed his appearance. “There were girls in high school and my first years at college. I’d meet one and be interested. I’d want to get to know them, but never enough to force myself to talk. I talk when I have something to say, not when someone has something they want to hear. So, I never got to know them, and eventually, each one stepped back out of my life.”
    A question formed in Cara’s eyes. Jonathan saw it and nodded. “I had a million ways of telling her how much I loved her,” he paused, a twinkle in his eye. “And some of them used words.”
    Cara glanced at her phone and her shoulders drooped. “We have to go. They’re closing in ten minutes.”
    “Do you mind if I get the children before we head back to the hotel?”
    “Only if I get to help.”
    ~*~*~*~
    At the Rockland Towers, Cara carried Riley to the elevator, up three floors, and into the Lyman’s suite while Jonathan carried Bryson. As she laid the