“Yes, I do. We’ve been married for forty-odd years, and if there’s one thing in this world I understand, it’s your mother. Maze of emotions that she is.”

“I know she’s still sad over Aunt Tiff. Scared that I’ll end up just like her.”

“Sad? Mary, love, sad doesn’t even begin to describe it. I’m not sure she’ll ever be the same.”

Mary frowned. But her mother had been so crisp and curt in the wake of her older sister’s death. She hadn’t even cried at the funeral. There’d been a constant air of so much to do and so little time, and not once had her mother just sat down and grieved. That Mary had seen, at least.

“I think...” Trevor said slowly, thoughtfully, his eyes squinting behind his thick horn-rimmed glasses. “I think that she wants to honor Tiff’s memory by making sure that you don’t suffer the same things that Tiff suffered. And she’s terrified that you want to honor Tiff’s memory by being exactly like Tiff.”

Mary flushed with pleasure. “You think I’m exactly like Tiff?”

Trevor smirked. “Mary, if I hadn’t been in the room at your birth, I might have sworn you were Tiff’s daughter. Your looks, your manner, even your voice. Not to mention your personality. Tiff was just as upbeat as you are. The only difference is that she never let your mother get her down. She’d just laugh and hug Naomi and remind her that there was more than one way to slice an apple.”

Mary smiled fondly, even though a sheen of tears had sprung up in her eyes. That sounded just like Tiff.

“But the thing is, sweetheart, your mother is not naturally inclined to look at the world that way. She’s in the school of thought that there is one right way to slice an apple and all you have to do is figure out which one it is. But while Tiff was with us, your mother was more flexible, kinder about it all, more understanding. Once Tiff died, though...” Trevor sadly shook his head, rubbed his fingers underneath his glasses. “Your mother took it as a sign that Tiff had been wrong all along.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, though! Tiff died of cancer. What does that have to do with Mom’s fears over me being single?”