Over the years, her heart continued to feel that pain quite keenly. The horrible memories from that morning in May were etched into her soul.

But when she was with Dan? Her body relaxed, her fears quieted.

He reached for her hand and squeezed it.

“I’m sorry that happened. No one deserves that.” His low, soothing voice turned gravelly. “You must already realize this, but your ex-husband is an idiot. He’d have to be to give you up.”

Renee blushed. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”

Before the meteor shower began, Dan carried their dishes to the cabin. He brought back a flannel blanket and the bottle of wine. They moved to the cushioned, leather seats that ran the perimeter of the boat’s deck.

“Let me,” he whispered, wrapping her shoulders in the warm fabric. He refilled her glass and sat beside her, their thighs barely grazing, yet touching enough it was hard to focus on anything else.

They gazed up at the sky, to the soaring rays of light.

“I don’t even want to blink,” she sighed.

“Growing up, my dad used to take my brother and me to this a nearby conservatory. He loved astronomy. He could point out every constellation. I think if he was born in a different time, with different circumstances…”

“He would have been an astronomer?”

“Yeah,” Dan said, with a nod. “Maybe even an astronaut. His family was pretty poor growing up. He got a job as a mailman when he was eighteen years old and never looked back. He appreciated the dependable nature of his government job.”

“He must be so proud that you became a doctor.”

“He is—though if I ever told him the amount of student debt I graduated with, he would have been appalled. Probably would have asked me why I didn’t just become a mail carrier like him.” Renee smiled at him, relishing every bit of this family information. “He and Mom still live in Indianapolis, where I grew up. They’re in their late seventies now.”

Dan pointed at an especially bright streak of light, and Renee inhaled in appreciation. “Tom, my brother, still lives in Indy. He’s a sports writer for the Indianapolis Star.”

“Are you two close?”

“I love him, but we’re guys. We could do a better job at keeping in touch.”

“I guess I’m lucky my sister lives nearby, and well, that we’re women,” she laughed, with a pang thinking of how distant she had felt from Bree lately. “Makes me sad I never gave Tansy a sibling.”

With their faces still tilted toward the spectacular cosmic show and not at one another, she pushed on. “So, no kids for you then?”

God. Could she have chosen a more awkward way to ask such a personal question? She wanted to slip under the flannel blanket and hide.

But Dan didn’t seem insulted or bothered.