“You can take me home.” Colleen said the words she’d said so many times before when she’d felt the urge to open up, to crack the door that led to the room where all her sadness and grief were stored. Beckett wanted to talk about family. She did not.

“I don’t understand.” He exhaled and stepped back. “Listen, if you want to go home, I’ll take you. But if I’ve said or done something to upset you, then you must tell me.”

“No.” Colleen shook her head, her hair falling from the clip that held it back. “It’s my family. It’s complicated, and seeing yours so funny and loving just brings up things I try my best not to dwell on. If I talk about it—it all comes rushing back at me and that is the last thing I want right now.”

“We’ve had rough times, too, Colleen. Everyone does. I put them all through hell—that’s why it’s a big ol’ joke that I’m the favorite. Mom doesn’t say that because I’ve been the angel, or because anything is perfect.”

“How so?”

“It’s why I don’t drink. I’ve hinted at that. I had a terrible problem in my twenties. I was arrested. I put them through hell and back, and then to hell again.”

Colleen stared at Beckett—a man who seemed so together, with a family so intact.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s walk on the riverfront and we’ll eat if and when you get hungry.”

After apologizing to the waitress and vacating their table, they ambled to the river park, where a sidewalk followed the curving shore of the rushing tidal waters. Gas lanterns and spotlights punctuated the darkness. “I’m sorry to ruin the night,” Colleen said.

“So what happened, Colleen? What happened that you had to change your name and leave this place?”

She paused at the edge of the river and stared at the man who had asked her what no one ever had—the real reason. Other men had probed in different ways, but he’d nailed it: why did you change your name and leave this place? Tears bloomed in her eyes; a thunderhead of anguish built in her chest. And right there, with the exact right question asked, Colleen blurted out the truth. “On my wedding day ten years ago, I found my sister and my fiancé kissing in the hallway of the church. I ran. They married soon after. I’ve avoided this place as much and as often as I can.”

“Oh, Colleen.” He rested his breath on those words and then said softly, “I’m so sorry that happened. When she came outside with her husband . . . behind the pub, I figured something had gone wrong, but I didn’t think . . .”