Sometimes I clutched the laptop and didn’t write. I deleted sentences and added them back. My word count had expanded to eighteen thousand, and I’d told most of what I knew about Violet’s youth from my written notes and her teenage diary. I found myself trying to remember our more casual conversations, hoping for revelations.

And about sixty thousand more words.

On one of those days I got exasperated and joined Rick on the dock, where he’d been fishing for an hour. He heard me walking up and patted the space next to him, mouthing “shh” and pointing to the water.

After a few minutes he announced, “I’m giving up. Not accomplishing anything here. I think we’re having hot dogs for supper.”

“I’m not, either. I deleted everything I wrote this morning. There was this long scene about Violet at a dance with Johnny, where she’d gotten jealous of another girl. She went on and on about it in her diary. I decided it was boring and took it back out. I’ve been going back and looking for new Johnny and Sam stories I might’ve missed.” I thought for a minute. “Johnny was a great guy, and Violet’s first love, but Sam is more my type. He was funny and smart and had some amazing lady-pleasing skills.”

Rick laughed. “How do I compete with that?”

“Very well, sir.” I ran my fingernails up and down his back. “I’d choose you. Anyway, he was deeply in love with her. Violet found out he’d been collecting photos of her for a long time…”

“That’s creepy,” Rick interrupted.

“Stop thinking like a cop.” I punched his arm. “He was the yearbook photographer. He took lots of candids of Violet she never knew about plus the usual yearbook stuff. He kept copies at home.”

“More romantic and less creepy, I guess. If you say so. Let me ask you something,” Rick said. “Why do you think Violet wanted you to write her story?”

“I don’t know.” I looked across the lake at a little boat putting along. “I think she saw her life as fascinating. She was the center of attention in any room. She felt loved and adored by men. She lost her daughter and survived that pain, then I came into her life and she doted on me in her place. So many things came full circle for her at Fairfield Springs. You have to admit it was remarkable.”

“Can you think of any other reasons?” He raised his eyebrows.

“She wanted me to prove to myself I could accomplish it. I told her more than once I didn’t know how I’d even begin.”

“Is that everything?”

“Well, she wanted the world to know what she’d been through. She’d had to keep a lot of secrets. And Violet was the type of person who craved attention...”

“...even after she was gone,” Rick finished.