Cait had gone to KU in Lawrence, often driving in with Adam. He’d been made head coach a few years back and he looked after anything Cait needed. That she and his son Jared had paired off in elementary school had been a happy bonus.

As Jared and Cait got older, Kelly said, “Now I understand why Mom was so fierce in wanting grandchildren. So do I!”

“They won’t have fur,” Adam had said seriously.

“But they will crawl,” she’d answered, and they’d laughed.

All their happiness and plans for the future had ended when Cait broke up with Jared. He was a grown man but he came home crying and collapsed in his mother’s arms.

“Why?” was all he could say. “Why, why, why?” He never got an answer.

Kelly had interrogated Paul. “You owe me,” she’d said. “You led me on for years and didn’t tell me you were gay.”

Pauly sighed. He’d explained it all many times. “I didn’t know.”

“Yes, yes. You didn’t know for sure until you went off to Ireland with a bunch of guys. I get it. But you still owe me. What happened to Caitlyn?”

“By all that’s holy, I have no idea. Only she and Miguel know and they’re not telling.”

“It was something bad,” Kelly said. “I know she and Jared were in love but now she’ll hardly speak to him. He’s too young to have his heart broken.”

“I agree,” Pauly said. “And I’ve asked. Seth has asked, but we get no answer.”

“What’s she going to do?”

“She does her work but there’s no heart in it. Seth and I offered to send her to Europe for the summer. We thought a change of scenery would help. Know what she said?”

“I can’t imagine.”

“That it was no use. She couldn’t change her life.”

“Her life!” Kelly said. “That’s dramatic.”

“Personally, I’d like some drama. It might end the misery that has descended over our happy home. Cait and Miguel go off together for hours, days even. Sometimes they disappear and we don’t know where they are. If Mom were still alive, Cait would talk to her.”