And Emily realized all of a sudden that the part that came after that was a kiss. Rob raised his eyebrows at her, and a piece of Emily was tempted to nod, to say: Yes, kiss me. To feel his lips against hers again, to turn back time, to rewind to the days before they’d played Webster Hall, before she’d gotten pregnant, before she’d fallen and broken her hand and broken up the band. But she was an adult now, and she couldn’t go back. She shook her head, and instead the two of them hugged, Rob swinging his guitar to the side, so it wouldn’t get caught between them.

“I really am so glad you’re in the world,” he whispered into her ear. “It makes it more wonderful to me.”

“I’m glad you’re in the world, too,” she whispered back. “I really, truly am.”

xxviii

I know I said that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have children, but meeting Ezra has made me reevaluate that. I think I might want Ezra to be the father of your brothers or sisters. He’s the best man I’ve ever met. He’s just . . . good. He’s a deeply good person. And he makes me want to be better, to focus more on other people, on helping them, on being like Dr. West. He has a quote stenciled around his living room, traveling from wall to wall, just under the seam where it meets the ceiling, that says: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

When I first got to his place, I didn’t notice it. In the dim light, I thought it was a design, some kind of decorative border on the top of the wall. But once he turned the light on, I could read it. I turned in a circle following the phrases to their end.

“Weird for a guy who was raised Jewish to have John Wesley’s quote on his wall, I know,” he said. “But my mom’s dad was Methodist, and before I was born, my parents stenciled it like this around my bedroom. I grew up with those words, and I really believe them. So when I moved here, my parents came and helped me stencil them here. It reminds me what I want to do with my life.”