He swallowed the food in his mouth and reached into the bag, pulled out a wad of fries, and shrugged.

“You’re eating all the fries,” she said.

“Better step up your game then.”

Her eyes locked on to his, and for a fleeting moment they were friends again.

“Probably weird living in my old house,” he countered.

Her turn to take a handful of fries. She shrugged.

So far this conversation was the equivalent of driving around a cul-de-sac.

“I always liked this house,” she said.

He took a swig from the bottle of water she’d set out before he arrived but said nothing.

“It had started to fall apart a little,” she said. “I guess it was important to me to fix it.”

“Why?” He’d stopped chewing. What had she done to earn his full attention? She wanted to know so she didn’t do it again.

Should she tell him the truth? That she’d made such a mess of things that she felt like she owed it to his family somehow to protect the space that had been theirs? That she’d spent the majority of her life trying to make up for foolish mistakes that felt so petty and ridiculous now but that had such a harmful effect on so many people?

“Are we going to talk about this every time we see each other?” she asked instead.

He didn’t answer.

“I liked the house,” she said. “I wanted to keep it from becoming an eyesore. That’s all.”

“That’s all?”

She paused. “There was a lot of happiness here once. Maybe I was trying to hold on to a sliver of that too.”

“Did you?”

“Sure,” she lied. “Nothing but happy times since I moved in.”

He popped the last bite of his burger into his mouth and rolled the paper into a tight ball. “Should we get started?”

She glanced down at her half-eaten burger and set it aside. “Uh, sure.”

He pulled the box onto the table in front of him and ripped the tape off as if it were a package he’d ordered from Amazon.

But as soon as he took the lid off, she could tell by the look on his face that he hadn’t expected the sucker punch of emotion that washed over him. She hadn’t expected it either, but her eyes had filled with tears.

He glanced up at her and put the lid back on the box. “I just remembered I’ve got to get down to the station and check on some stuff for Duncan.”

She frowned. “Cody.”

He stood, picked up the box, and walked toward the front door. She followed him but said nothing, aware that this was a battle he would have to fight on his own. And fearing with almost 100 percent certainty her presence only made things worse.