Liza managed a smile. “I’m working on that. Given time I might even become what Caitlin would describe as ‘chilled’.”

“Don’t change too much. I admire the way you are. I know I was absent a great deal when you were young. The reasons for that are complicated. Yes, I loved my career, but it was so much more than that. Part of me has never stopped being afraid of loving deeply. Of course that doesn’t mean I don’t love deeply—I do. But I was always afraid to give that love too big a place in my life. Like being afraid of heights, and not looking down when you’re standing on a cliff edge.”

She’d always thought she was to blame for the fact that she wasn’t close to her mother, but she could see now it wasn’t anything to do with her.

Now, finally, she understood.

Her mother’s character had been formed long before Liza had arrived on the scene. Beliefs and behavior arose from unseen events. Something that had happened to her mother sixty years before had continued to send aftershocks through her life. Her mother had been hurt, so she’d distanced, and that feeling of distance had made Liza determined to be closer to her own children, except that she’d got it wrong and now she needed to unravel that.

If Adam had married her mother then Kathleen might have been a different type of mother, which was a ridiculous thought because if Kathleen had married Adam then Liza wouldn’t have existed. But it was a reminder that everything was shaped by events and her own children would be shaped by events too. Perhaps they’d forever be cautious in relationships because they’d remember finding an article entitled “Eight Signs That Your Marriage Might Be in Trouble.” Perhaps they’d decide not to get married or perhaps they’d get married and watch for every one of those eight signs and be happier in their relationships because of it.

“You lived the life you needed to live,” she said. “I respect that. It’s inspiring, and I’m planning on doing more of that myself from now on.”

“You are? Tell me more.”

“Later.” There was time enough for that. “Let’s focus on these letters. What do you want to do?”

“Read them. All of them. Now we’ve started I don’t think I can bear the suspense of not knowing. Do you have the time?”

Liza glanced up as Sean walked into the room bearing a large glass of wine and a cheese platter.

He put it down quietly on the table next to the bed, raised his eyebrows when he saw Popeye curled into her lap and handed her a piece of paper that said “I love you.”

She smiled at him and then turned her attention back to her mother.