“You were fifteen when we found out her cancer had come back. And you were so upset. You weren’t eating or sleeping, and your grades were falling. We felt helpless with the cancer, with everything. Your mother couldn’t bear to see you that way. I think she felt desperate to give you some advice to carry through your life that would help you to deal with her death. So she told you to be upbeat, to look on the bright side.”

Always smile, Leo, she’d said, touching his cheek. Promise me. When you give a smile to another person, when you make them laugh, it’s like giving them a present. And it lifts you up when you’re feeling sad.

“It was good advice for a teenager,” Leo said. “I get why she said it.”

“My point is that life isn’t all smiles, though. Sometimes we need to feel the pain. You might think you can escape it, but if you’re human, you must feel the pain. That’s how we know we love someone. We feel their pain as well as their happiness.” He smiled. “And sometimes they cause us pain. Ha. Like when we disagree. But the pain helps us realize how much we need the other person. Plus, you get to make up afterwards.”

“I get it, Dad.” He forced himself to look at his father. “But this wasn’t a little argument. I told her it was a good thing we weren’t serious. That the marriage was just a business contract.”

“A business contract? What are you talking about?”

Leo sighed. “We got married to save the restaurant and the bakery. I thought it would get you to listen to my ideas. And get our families to work together for the common good.”

“A business contract,” he mumbled. “That’s pretty desperate.”

Leo shrugged. “I knew I could turn things around, but I couldn’t get you to listen. I—I love you, Dad. And I’m sorry for the deception. But the joke’s on me now.”

His dad folded his big arms. “Leo, I was stubborn. And I’m sorry that you felt you had to make such a last-resort move. But I learned. And you can, too. You’re an Ivy League graduate. You can figure this out.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

His dad sat back and stared at him and gave him a look like you poor clueless sap.

Yeah, he was feeling things, all right. In his head, stomach, legs, and chest.

He put his hand up and rubbed his sternum, which felt like the worst indigestion of his life.

So this was what heartache felt like. “I love her, Dad.”

“Finally,” his dad said with relief. “And by the way.” He clapped his hand on Leo’s back. “I love you, too. So stop wasting your time talking to me and go do something about it.”

…