“The minute I realized I’d fallen in love with her, I was right here,” Jake says. “It was maybe year three or four, it was in the morning, and I was swimming when your sister got home from her run. She came out to the porch to stretch and she didn’t see me, so I could appreciate her without her knowing it. And I remember thinking, I love that girl.”

“She had a light inside her,” Coop says. “A funny, innocent light. A good person light.”

“I should have left Ursula and married her,” Jake says. “There were dozens of times I wanted to do it, but I was afraid. I was afraid of life without Ursula, I was afraid your sister would turn me down, and I think we were both afraid that once we were officially together, our love would seem regular, and like regular love, it would die.”

“Remember that one year Mal and I met you at PJ’s at Christmastime and the two of you were dancing by the jukebox? I should have figured out what was going on with you two back then.”

“You should’ve,” Jake says. “But you were too busy chatting up Stacey.”

Coop splashes him. “I’ve got first shower.”

Right before dinner, Jake gets an idea. He searches through the cabinets until he finds a mason jar and then he goes out the back door and snips the last remaining hydrangea blossom off the bush and puts it on the harvest table as a centerpiece.

Now it feels like Mallory is there.

They all sit at the narrow table, which is lit only by votive candles. Jake recalls the year Mallory decided to use tapers and one fell while Jake and Mallory were in the bedroom fooling around and the cottage nearly burned down, and one of the firemen who showed up was Mallory’s ex-boyfriend, JD.

After he finishes his second glass of wine, he considers telling this story, but it feels too precious to share.

Leland says, “Let’s go around the table and say which of Coop’s wives was our favorite. My favorite was Tish.”

Cooper laughs. He really is a good sport, Jake thinks. “Tish was my least favorite,” Coop says. “She was in love with someone else when she married me—her ‘family friend,’ Fred from San Francisco. They’ve been happily married for over twenty years and have a business flipping houses in Nob Hill. Their daughter goes to Stanford.”

“My favorite was Valentina,” Fray says. “She was a sweet woman.”

“Sweet,” Coop says. “But using me to escape an arranged marriage.”

“Did she go back to Ecuador?” Jake asks.