“It was nothing really. I was just thinking that you can’t mess with fate.”

“What were you doing? Wishing that you could go back in time so that you wouldn’t have the accident?”

“Exactly. I keep wishing that things were different and wondering what would have happened if I’d left five minutes later, or if I’d decided to take the highway to town instead of going the back way. I wonder if anyone else does that.”

“I do. I scraped my side mirror backing out of the garage right after I moved into our house, and I kept wishing I could go back a couple of seconds in time so that I’d back up straighter and I wouldn’t scrape it.”

“It’s good to know I’m not alone,” Hannah said, but her mind was fixed on two words that Norman had used. Our house. Norman had called it their house and that made her feel sad. In a way, it was their house. They’d designed it together for a contest in the Minneapolis paper and they’d won first prize. But she’d never, in her wildest imagination, dreamed that Norman would build it and ask her to marry him!

Norman reached out to cover her hand with his. “You’re never alone when I’m around.”

There was silence between them for a long moment, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. At last Hannah sat up a little straighter and sighed. “I killed him, you know,” she said.

“It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have seen him in the pouring rain.”

“Then I should have pulled over.”

“Perhaps. Why didn’t you?”

“I was trying to get under the trees so we’d have some shelter from the lightning.”

“That makes sense to me.”

“And then I came around the bend and there was a fallen tree branch in the middle of the road. I swerved to avoid it, but the truck skidded and headed for the side of the road and . . . and before I could straighten it out, I hit him.”

“You didn’t see him standing there?”

“No. It all happened so fast and all I could do was react when I saw the branch. I had no idea he was standing on the shoulder of the road.”

Norman looked thoughtful. “I wonder why he was standing there. If he saw you coming, he should have jumped out of the way. Were you going fast?”

“No. I slowed way down because it was raining so hard that I couldn’t see well.”

“You did the right thing then.”

Hannah thought about that for a moment. “Maybe. But if I did the right thing, why did I hit him?”

“Because you couldn’t help it. It was an accident, Hannah. It’s not like you set out to hit him on purpose.”

“I know that, but I still feel awful. I wonder who he was.”

“You didn’t recognize him?”

“No. I wonder if Doc Knight knows.”

Norman shrugged. “If he ever lived around here, Doc would know. He’s lived here for years. And if Doc doesn’t know, he was probably a stranger.”