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ago, I had no intention of coming back, ever. The more distance the
better. It's better for all of them if I just leave now. They'd know Uncle
Billy was still kicking around somewhere and that would be the end of it.   Assuming they even cared. They needed
to move on too, right? Start the healing process. That's what all the experts
say.
    The pile of projects
waiting for me back in Montana is huge. The outbuilding needs repainting. There
is a set of woodworking tools that I've been meaning to learn how to use. There
is some writing to do too, but that is always the case. The writing never ends.
It never leaves the cabin either.
    I'm feeling a strong
draw to just go home.
    I set my beer down on
the kitchen table and leave the house through the side door. I catch a glimpse
of Kendall sitting alone on a swing in the backyard. Her back is to me. I don't
say goodbye. As far as I know, nobody notices me leave and nobody cares either.

Chapter 3

 
    When I first met my late
wife Jane Redmond—or Jane Holland, as she went by then—I thought she
was the most beautiful creature God had ever created. I was completely
speechless. Literally. Most people say literally, when they really mean
figuratively, but in this case, it was true—literally. When I first met
Jane she stuck her fingers in my mouth. That sounds creepy out of context, I
know.   Jane was a dental hygienist
and I was in the chair for a sore tooth.
    I came back the next day
for a cleaning and then the next day when I almost mustered up the courage to
ask her out.
    She had this jet-black hair
that framed her face perfectly and wore those light blue scrubs that only look
flattering on people who they should look flattering on. She was very fit. She
came in the room wearing a mask and all I could see where those eyes. Green
eyes and black hair. And then fingers, but they didn't exactly have the same
lasting emotional connection on me as did her sparkling eyes. But her fingers
were nice too.
    There was something
about her—this nameless dental worker who put me at ease. I'd never been
a great dental patient in the first place, so I was a little on edge going in
there anyway. But it was this woman who made me feel like I was the only person
in the world. She moved quietly and seemed to float around me. I later figured
out that the floating was more of a reaction to the gas they gave me than her
ability to actually float anywhere.
    Ironically she never
said a word to me. Not while she was doing the pre-check work on my pesky toothache
for the dentist. And not while she scraped and scrubbed every little crevice in
my mouth. I yearned for her to speak but she didn't. She smiled though and she
knew I was watching her.
    So it was a bit of a
surprise to me—on day three of my sojourn into the office—that she
actually addressed me by name.
    "Mr. Redmond,"
she said. I'll never forget that's what she called me. "If you don't ask
me out now, the window will be closed forever."
    So there I was, standing
in front of the receptionist's counter, pretending to make yet another
appointment—for some reason a teeth whitening treatment seemed like a
good way to get inside the office again. Every female in the place, including
those who didn't look so great in those light blue scrubs, was staring at me.
The keyboards stopped clicking and, I swear to you, so did the drills and
hydraulic chair lifts that make you feel like you're
levitating—especially when you're loopy. It was deadly quiet and all I
could see was her.
    "I, uh…"
    Yep, that's what I said.
I'm surprised she didn't jump me right then and there. So smooth.
    Just as she turned to
walk away—ostensibly ending any chance that I would have at finding a
woman and a love like no other—I managed to croak out a few words.
    "I don't even know
your name," I said while the world stopped spinning.
    "I've had my hands
inside your mouth for the last two days," she said. "Does it
matter?"
    "Well, I guess
not."
    And that's how