They smiled and sipped and chatted, and while there was a pleasant rolling feel to the floor, Josh was actually having a good time.

“Tell me more about your wife,” she said, and he did. He told her about how happy they were, how many fun things they did, the places they’d gone, how even when she was at her sickest, Lauren never stopped being positive and kind and perfect.

Cammie had tears in her eyes. “I hope I meet someone like you someday, Josh,” she said, which was odd, because that day was today, wasn’t it?

“She wrote these letters for me to read every month after she died,” he said, again surprising himself. “She said she wanted to walk me through this first year without her.”

“Oh, my God.” Cammie’s mouth wobbled, and she took a cocktail napkin and carefully wiped under her lashes. “That’s beautiful.”

“I thought so, too.”

“Your guardian angel.”

He hated that term, but . . . “Exactly. And every month in the letter, she gives me something to do, so I’m not just sitting around our apartment, lost.”

“Seriously? What does she tell you to do?”

“Well, the first thing was just go to the grocery store. Then, you know, have people over for dinner. Get a new couch. See a, um . . . a medium.”

“Oh, my God! How was that? Was it amazing? I’m a total believer.”

“It was pretty incredible,” he admitted.

“My cousin? She has flashes like that? Totally random, but it knocks your socks off. Like once? She said my grandmother had made my dress for my first Communion? She’s like, ‘Grandma is showing me the dress she made for your first Communion,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, I loved that dress.’” She smiled fondly at the memory. “It had pockets. Then my mother said that my cousin would know that because Gran made all the first Communion dresses for her granddaughters, but still. She knew about the pockets, right?”

“Yes,” Josh said, though he wasn’t sure if that was an appropriate response. “This lady was very . . . accurate.”

“Such a gift. God bless her.” She made the sign of the cross, and Josh’s eyes followed her hand up to her shiny hair, then down to her lovely cleavage, then left, then right, and whoo! His eyes were getting a little rebellious, weren’t they? A little maverick, those eyes.

Their second round of drinks was gone, the room was spinning slightly, and Josh decided, what the hell, he’d tell her. “So for this month, my wife wanted me to kiss someone. A woman.”

He probably hadn’t needed to add that last part.

“Seriously? That was her thing for you?”

“Yes.”

Cammie’s brilliant eyes welled again. “I think that’s so . . . kind. So fucking romantic.”