The thought made her tremble, but it was clear that he wasn’t going to let her get away without her granting him something. “If you get off me, I will lie here next to you until you go to sleep,” she conceded, trying to console her outraged conscience with the idea that she was merely comforting a troubled veteran. A sort of extension of her Red Cross duties. It didn’t stop her trembling, but after he rolled off her, she was able to take a couple of deep breaths, and she felt a little better.

He curled his body in close to hers, pulling the sheets and blankets up, tucking them around their waists. He lay down, his head an inch away from hers on the pillow. He reached out and touched her hand where it rested on her stomach.

“I’m not really sleepy,” he said. “Can we talk for a while?”

He told her about his long journey home from Iwo Jima: the hospital ship, Hawaii, California, the woman on the train to Pine Rapids. After some prodding, she finally told him about her war, and when she talked about Bobby, embarrassingly, she started to cry.

He propped himself on his elbow to wipe a tear from her cheek with a gentle swipe of his thumb, and looked down on her with concern.

“I’m sorry,” she said, propping herself up a little. “I haven’t any right—when you’ve been through so much—”

He shook his head, and touched her face. “That doesn’t seem to matter right now. When I’m with you.”

For just a moment, she closed her eyes, loving his soft touch, the sweetness of his words. But she caught herself, shook her head, and tried to sit up. He stopped her. And when he kissed her again, she found herself kissing him back. It was as though her loneliness had taken a baseball bat to the backs of her knees: She’d lost her footing, lost all sense but pain and the crushing need for immediate succor.

Less than an hour later, Anne was folding her sweaters into her open suitcase on the bed in the guest room. She felt like she was in a nightmare. The rain outside, the spooky glow of the hall light and the guest room lamp, which even together couldn’t combat the darkness in the chilly house. And the persistent recollection: “Just a little?”

“No, JJ!”

“Please, Anne?”

“Stop it!”