“Oh …” He stretches his arm out along the bench behind me. The hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. “Well, for one thing, I thought I had all the time in the world. And I kept thinking maybe the next one would be even better. Stupid. I had an uncle who was a real womanizer—he was my hero, in a lot of ways. When he died, he was surrounded by five women. I always thought that was the coolest thing. Now I’m not so sure. Now I wonder about him having to dissipate so much … energy. Who knows, maybe it’s what he really wanted. But I think maybe I should have learned how to be with only one person, at some point in my life. It would help, now. But I never learned how to do that.” He looks over at me, smiles. “Don’t you wish we could have doovers?”

“You only had one girlfriend in high school,” I said. “For two whole years.”

“Yeah, Diann. She wasn’t really the only one.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

“Nobody did. She suspected, though.” He leans back, sighs, then turns to look at me.

“We got back together, not long ago. She’s a divorce lawyer, now, she has her own practice. Does real well.”

“No kidding.” Well, of course. Of course he would still have someone. In the pit of my stomach, something twists.

“Yeah, we hadn’t seen each other for years, but we’d always kept in touch. She got married right after college, and then, a few years ago, she got divorced. She moved to New York, just a little ways from me, and we began seeing each other again. But we had some problems. Same old stuff—I kept seeing other women. We broke up right before I was diagnosed.” He picks at a piece of paint which has loosened on the bench.

“So does she know?”

“What?”

“Diann. Does she know about you?”

“Oh, sure. She was the first thing I saw when I woke up after the surgery. But I don’t see the point in … She called the other night, wants to come and visit me. I can just see that, her staying with my parents. They always hated her.”

“Really?” Good. “Why?”

“I don’t know. Got off on the wrong foot, maybe. It was odd.”

“Why doesn’t she stay in a hotel?”

“Well, she wants to be close by. Here in Ashton.”

“She can stay with me.” I don’t know why I’ve said this. I don’t think I mean it. I think it was just a knee-jerk response, sticking up for the underdog.

“Really?”

“Well, I do have a two-bedroom house. Although it’s small, it’s really very small.”

“That’s so nice of you, Myra.”

I look at my watch. “We’d better get going. I need to let my dog out.”