“This dress is so pretty!” Jen said. “Too bad it won’t fit me. Sarah, you take it.”

Sarah held it up, a gauzy, breezy outfit with flowers embroidered on the hem. “I’d look like a fairy in it.”

“Perfect. You could wear it to a wedding or, I don’t know, high tea.” They giggled. “Oh, this dress! She wore it all the time on the Cape.” It was a long, light pink dress, and Jen was right—Lauren had loved its comfort and color. It had tiny roses stitched along the neckline.

“I’d like to keep that,” he said, swallowing.

“Of course, hon.” Jen looked at him, her mouth wobbling.

“How’s your boyfriend?” he asked Donna, desperate to change the subject.

“He’s lovely, Josh. You’ll have to meet him. Oh, I remember this shirt! I bought this for her when she was interviewing! She looked so grown up!” Donna smiled despite the tears in her eyes. Josh smiled back, or tried to.

“Oh, my God, she kept this! Jen, do you remember?” Sarah exclaimed, holding up a long black lace dress Josh had never seen his wife wear. “Halloween, when you had that party and she fell into the copper tub?”

“Yes! It was hilarious! Mom, we were bobbing for apples, and she was trying to impress that cute guy Darius knew? She just dove in and pinned an apple against the bottom. With her teeth! She came up with it in her mouth, and drenched all the way to her waist, and her makeup was streaming, and her hair was sopping wet, and she looked absolutely terrifying, like some kind of evil Eve. Oh, my God, we laughed so hard!”

Josh didn’t want to hear stories of her trying to impress some other guy. Having a good time without him. Interested in a man who wasn’t him. He didn’t want to remember that had he not been a stuck-up asshole, he might have been at that party, too.

Their memories of her made her feel too . . . alive. He could just about hear her laugh. The familiar pain stabbed his heart, the blade ragged and sharp. “I’m gonna put Octavia down for a nap,” he said as the tot conveniently yawned. “I might doze off with her, if that’s okay.”

“Sure thing,” Jen said. “We’ll quiet down.” She kissed the baby on her head and said, “Uncle Josh will put you down for a nap, baby girl.”

“Nigh-night,” she said. She was an early talker, though she showed no interest in walking yet. Josh didn’t mind. He got to carry her more that way.

Donna kissed the baby, too, then Sarah did the same, and finally Josh was free.

He took the baby into the guest room. “Time for us to sleep, little one,” he said, laying her down.

“No seep,” she said, rubbing her eyes.

“Uncle Josh will sleep with you.”