Instead, I’d opted to book a room at a nearby hotel with the promise that I would have breakfast with them in the morning before hopping on a train back to the city. My first meeting the next day wasn’t until 11:45 a.m., so I had some time before I needed to be there. Rosie signed off on this plan with the caveat that I let them drive me to the hotel after dinner. While I was a little hesitant when she suggested Cris drive me to the hotel, I was touched by the level of care this woman I barely knew showed for me. To me, it was further evidence that Cris and Rosie were good people. Footsteps sounded on the other side of the door before it was enthusiastically swung open.

‘Liz!’ Rosie exclaimed, pulling me into a warm embrace. She had donned another brightly floral patterned dress and seemed just as immaculate and put together as the day we’d met. She put her hand to her chest and said, ‘Oh would you look at that. Is that Teresa’s locket?’

I smiled and nodded my head. ‘Cris mailed it to me, didn’t he tell you?’

Rosie’s smile became strained for a second before she recovered. ‘Oh yes, I’m sure he mentioned it. At my age it’s easy for things to slip from my mind. Come on in, I’ll pull dinner out of the oven and we can dive right in, you must be famished.’

The house smelled of tantalizing Latin spices, making my stomach grumble lightly. ‘I’m starving,’ I said with a smile. ‘Thanks again for dinner and waiting for me to get here. Work got crazy today and it was impossible for me to sneak away,’ I continued apologetically.

‘Oh no problem at all. Cris has actually been upstairs going through some boxes that belonged to your mother and grandfather. I thought there may be some things in there that would interest you to see. But first, let’s eat. Cris! Liz is here.’

I heard heavy footsteps moving above us. I looked around the space while we waited for him to come down and took notice of the living room off to the other side of the staircase. I hadn’t paid much attention to it last time as we’d been shuffled right into the kitchen and dining room from the entryway.

‘This room is beautiful,’ I said, taking in the large bookshelves full of colorful leather bound books lining the wall of the living room. A fireplace with an oversized mantle sat across from a small leather couch with large velvet decorative pillows and a knit throw folded evenly over the back.

‘Oh, thank you, Liz,’ Rosie said, following my gaze. ‘We don’t spend as much time in there as we’d like, but it’s lovely to cozy up and light the fire during the colder winter months.’