Chet told Loretta he was attending a conference in San Francisco; he’d telephone when he returned.

They looked at the city lights from the tenth floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel, registered as Mr. and Mrs. Chester Wilkins. Close enough. Violet was paying for most of the trip, though Chet insisted on contributing. It didn’t matter to her. She saw all the brilliance of downtown San Francisco and all the stars in the heavens in Chet’s brown eyes. She took his hand and led him to the bed, where they stayed for three days.

Violet and Chet spent the next week and a half driving a rented Mustang convertible down California’s coastline, stopping over and over to marvel at the beauty of the majestic cliffs and ocean surf. They explored Monterey and then Carmel, where they found a charming inn overlooking the Pacific. Their room had a blazing fireplace and a little balcony where they could watch the seals frolic.

“There will never be a place more beautiful to me than this,” she told him.

“There will never be a woman more beautiful to me than you,” he said.

In a dimly lit Mexican restaurant in Santa Cruz, Violet returned from the ladies’ room to find Chet staring at a wallet photo of his son. He shoved it into his pocket quickly, but she’d seen the pain in his eyes. Violet felt a subtle shift inside her, the first piece of a wall pressed firmly into place.

The night before their flight back to Alabama, she rolled over and put her arms around Chet. “Please listen to me,” she began. “Your place is with your wife and son. I’ll treasure the memories we made here for the rest of my life, Chet, but I can’t be with you knowing you belong to Loretta. Go home and do everything you can to be a good husband to her. I will be fine as long as I know your heart is still beating in this world. That is all I need.”

He turned to face her, propping his head on one hand. “That’s a lovely and brave speech, Violet, but we both know it’s not going to happen. I love you. I have always been in love with you. And it’s not your decision to make for me.”

“Actually, it is. I’ll have nothing to do with you if you leave your family, Chet, I swear it. The guilt is too overwhelming. It would destroy me. I saw you looking at that picture of your son. I can’t live with it. I won’t.”

“I can still be in Eric’s life, Violet. This is ridiculous.” He shook his head and looked to the ceiling.

“Being in his life and raising him as a full time father are two very different things, Chet. You know that better than anyone.”