“Oh,” she said, and smiled back at me. “You just weren’t … well, talking back.”

“I was listening,” I said. “And just absorbing all the sounds of you.”

She rolled her eyes, but her smile remained. “So, I guess enough about me. Me. Me. Where are you headed with Aunt Sadie?”

Sadie had gently excused herself with the excuse that she wanted to go to Toomer’s Corner and buy a T-shirt for her son from J & M Bookstore. Although she wasn’t Lil’s aunt, because Rusty’s brother Matt was far from active in our lives, living in Memphis, Sadie has been Lil’s “aunt” since the day Lil was born.

“I’m finally going to stay in Ms. Birdie’s guesthouse on the bay. You know she’s been inviting us to for ages. I’ll be spending a few days—or maybe a couple weeks. I haven’t decided.”

“Wow. That’s not like you.”

“What’s not?” I asked as I wondered how my daughter perceived me—what is “like me” and what is “not like me.”

“You know, not deciding. You always know where we’re going and why and for how long.” She shrugged. “That’s all I meant.”

I reached over and took her hand. “This is different.”

“I know,” she said, and didn’t pull her hand away, which made my heart grow larger. She glanced at a poster of the Auburn baseball team, their schedule posted at the bottom of the torn paper.

“How’s Chad?” I asked, gesturing toward the poster. Her boyfriend was the starting catcher for the team.

She smiled now, and then she released my hand to make a wide gesture of open arms. “Great. Just great. I hate that he’s at that stupid Cape Cod league all summer—but … he’s great.”

I leaned over and gave her a long hug. “I need to get on the road, but Lil, I’m only about three and a half hours away. Please come visit me if you have a break from class or want to get away. We’ll head over to the beach or something fun.”

She nodded. “Okay.” She paused for a long time before she finally asked what she must have wanted to ask all along, because the question was rushed, soft, the way she asked or said the things that were important to her. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?”

I kissed her cheek as Sadie opened the front door as if she’d been standing outside listening, waiting for us to finish our conversation, which she probably was. She carried a J & M bag and entered the room. Her usual entrance was boisterous, loud, full of light, and she’d toned down her enthusiasm for us.

“You ready to go?” she asked.

“Yep.” I stood and stretched. Lil rose also, hugged me again.

“I love you,” I said.