Pebbles had learned to fetch the remote, the genius. If Lauren was on the couch, Pebbles was there, too, a ball of silken brown-and-white fur curled up right on Lauren’s perpetually cold feet. “What did we do before we had this dog?” Lauren asked Josh.

“You mean back when I was the love of your life,” he said, grinning as he cooked.

“Were you, though? Or was I just waiting for Pebbles?” she said, and he laughed. Getting him to laugh was akin to medaling in the Olympics, Lauren thought as she stroked Pebbles’s head. His kind of intellect didn’t have a lot of room for humor, so his laughter . . . the occasional joke, it meant the world. “Right, Pebbles?” she whispered. “You’ll need to brush up on your wisecracking, missy.”

“Before we eat,” he said, turning off the stove, “I got you a present.”

“Hooray! Is it a horse?”

“Um . . . no. But it’s really fun, and actually, you can ride it.”

She waited as he went into his study. A second later, he came out, pushing a . . .

A mobility scooter.

Her throat immediately clamped shut. Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, she told herself, but her fists were clenched. She wasn’t supposed to need that! She wasn’t even thirty! He should’ve gotten her a damn horse. Or a motorcycle.

He was smiling, but she could see the echo of sadness in his dark eyes. He knew it was an awful present.

And he knew she needed it.

It was fine. It was smart. They could do more because of it.

So she flashed Josh a big smile, and after a second, it became genuine. “That is one damn sexy scooter,” she said.

“Please tell me you’ll wear leather when you use it.”

“Of course! Red leather, I think.” She got off the couch and walked around it. Unsurprisingly, it was top of the line and, for a mobility scooter, as sleek as it could be, looking almost like a motorcycle from the front. Which Josh would know would help with the indignity aspect. A surge of love for her husband brought tears to her eyes—and these tears, she would allow. She kissed Josh’s neck, then hugged him. “I love it. I’m calling it Godzilla. Every bike needs a name. Come on, let’s break it in.”

She climbed on it, hit the forward button, then laughed as it lurched. Pebbles leaped and barked, and Lauren turned in a tight circle. “Whee! This is fun, honey! Come on, you try it.”

He did. He went down the hall, tried to do a K-turn, got stuck, and the two of them laughed till it hurt.