“Love you, darlin’.”

I smiled as a tear slid out of my eye. “Love you too.”

“Later.”

“’Bye.”

We hung up, I rounded the desk and made short work of running an additional payroll so Jerry could get his money.

Then I put the picture of me and Mr. Dennison in the frame. I took it to the shelf with the umbrella and set it up.

I took a step back and stared at it, allowing more tears to fall.

Then I swiped them away, turned and left the room knowing, as the years passed, that shelf would get filled with frames.

I’d only ever have one umbrella. I’d eventually have masses of frames.

But I’d have thousands of memories.

* * * * *

I was cleaning the house when I saw it.

The weekend before, after Mickey closed on his house, he and his kids had moved in.

Although it was bittersweet, the Donovans saying good-bye to their home, it was not traumatic.

Then again, for months, they’d had two homes and a big family so they were used to me, my kids and our space.

Ash and Cillian had elected to keep the bedroom furniture I had in the guestrooms, Cillian doing this stating an excited, “I feel like a lumberjack in that bed! Totally cool. And I’m so lumberjacking when I’m not going Mach three.”

Lumberjacking, which included axes and chainsaws, as a hobby did not thrill me, but I kept my mouth shut.

Much of Mickey and his kids’ stuff was dotted here there and everywhere with some of his furniture filling in empty spaces. But most of it I’d taken pictures of and now it was in a storage unit awaiting me selling it on Craig’s List.

The move had been such a huge project, I hadn’t thought of it until right then, when I was in Ash’s room, vacuuming.

She’d kept the beachy feel of the room but switched out the bed linens and added her knickknacks and posters, making the room hers.

The candle didn’t fit in it.

And further, the candle was too important to be hidden in her room.

I probably should have asked but I didn’t. I didn’t because I didn’t want her to think she had to be nice and thus say no.

The statement had to be made.

So I turned off the vacuum and grabbed the candle.

I moved my fabulous bowl to the corner of the kitchen counter.

I put the candle in the middle of the dining room table.

It worked perfectly.

I made a mental note to chat with Rhiannon before she came over again so she wouldn’t be blindsided by seeing it and possibly hurt.

I then went back to cleaning.

I was at the desk in the den when the kids got home from school.

“Drop off, Mom!” Auden shouted. “I’m going to Lacey’s.”