“I’ve wanted to come for weeks to say…what you did…letting him go…” Frannie had a look of awe on her face. “It was so selfless.”

“It was the only thing I could do. It was selfish more than anything.”

“No, it wasn’t. It was amazing. I don’t know that I could’ve done it.”

A stab of pain hit Clare just below her broken heart. “I don’t want to talk about that anymore. It’s over and done with. But I’m glad you’re here for another reason.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ve had lots of time to think,” Clare said with a small grin. “I don’t know if I ever adequately thanked you for what you did while I was sick. I mean for you to give up a year and a half of your life to take care of my kids—”

“Taking care of your girls was a pleasure. You don’t have to thank me. You’d have done the same for me. So you’re really doing okay?”

Clare raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Did Jack send you to check on me?”

“Not this time. I think he’s so stunned by the babies arriving in the middle of his wedding, he doesn’t even know his own name right now.”

They shared a laugh.

“I’m sure,” Clare said. “I’m doing fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I also came because I have something for you.” Frannie reached into her bag for a leather-bound book. She held it against her chest for a moment as she collected her thoughts. “Shortly after I moved in with Jack and the girls, I started keeping a journal. It was odd because I’d never had one before, but I suddenly had a need to write things down. Anyway, I debated for a long time about whether I should share it with you. And then I realized that most of the time I was keeping it, I was doing it for you. I was writing it for you.”

“Did you think I’d recover? No one seemed to think I would.”

“No, I didn’t think so. But for some reason I started writing things down, and when I read it over recently, I understood I’d done it for you, like I was talking to you. I didn’t consciously set out to do that. Oh, I’m not explaining it well.”

“No, you are. Can I see it?”

She handed the book to Clare. “I know you’ll be so happy to get back some of the time you lost with the girls by reading about their lives, but there’re other things in there that’ll cause you pain. I wish I could spare you that. I didn’t give it to you before now because of that.”