Alex was offered a full-time coaching position with the university’s archery team upon graduating. Like Ryan, Kimmy had majored in ecology, and after she graduated, Ryan helped her get a job at the research center where he was doing his postdoc. In field research, Kimmy spent nearly all her time outdoors and by herself, classifying flora in George Washington National Forest, assessing regrowth after forest fires, and studying the impact of new agricultural practices in the region.

26

IT WASN’T UNTIL Kimmy (who now went by Kim) and Alex were in their forties that they finally managed to plan a vacation for their two families together. It was something they had talked about doing for many years, but scheduling and logistics were tricky to coordinate with work and all the kids’ camps and extracurriculars. Alex’s husband’s work had taken them to the West Coast, whereas Kim and her family had settled in Warrenton, just a few blocks from Scott and Lisa, so a joint vacation would mean flights for at least one of the families.

Kim and Alex cleared the dates far in advance and settled on a week’s rental on Fontana Lake, nestled in the Smoky Mountains.

The house was a newly renovated timber A-frame that sat right on the water, with its own dock for swimming, a motorboat called the Barbara Marie, a fire pit, a hot tub, fishing equipment, hammocks, tetherball, a roomful of novels and board games—something for everyone.

Kim and her husband had twin boys, aged twelve, and a nine-year-old daughter. Alex and her husband had two girls, one thirteen and one ten.

Although the children had never spent time together and Kim and Alex didn’t know quite how it would go, they all got on even better than expected. The house was soon vibrating with laughter, bare stamping feet, card games, plans for fishing and water-skiing if the Barbara Marie had enough horsepower, opinions about dinner and a late-night movie.

One evening midway through the week, the men decided to take the boat out for a sunset spin, and all the kids joined. This left Kim and Alex alone at the house for the first time since they had arrived. They gazed out the kitchen window to the west, where the Barbara Marie could be seen snaking its way across the lake in smooth, wide arcs, and the bright sky seemed to crash into the mountains. They finished loading the dishwasher, then took a bottle of red out to the dock.

They sat with their toes dangling in the water, which took on a strange black-gold hue in the dusk light and was entirely still except for the ripples created by their feet. Far away, some hound was belting out its sorrow. The sun had just set into a cleft between two mountains, and the V-shaped western sky, flanked by deep blue mountain land, was still fiery and glorious.

They sipped their wine and looked out across the water in silence. Kim rubbed out goosebumps on her thighs.