Rebecca reached for a box of tissues on the nightstand. She said, “Can I tell you a story about Peter?”

Alexa nodded and gradually her sobs subsided. She sniffled and swiped at her nose.

“Two months before he died—” Even now, all this time later, Rebecca had to stop and catch her breath when she said that. “Two months before Peter died, he was offered a different job, with another company. It was more money, but he wouldn’t have liked it as much. It wasn’t hands-on, and the hands-on parts were the parts he loved. Nevertheless, he felt he should take it, for us. To provide more.”

Alexa’s face spasmed briefly. That was Peter for you was what her face said.

“But I didn’t want him to be unhappy in the service of money. I convinced him to keep the job he had.”

“And that’s why he was in Dubai,” whispered Alexa.

“And that’s why he was in Dubai,” affirmed Rebecca. “Do you know how many times I’ve lain awake at night trying to figure out if that aneurysm was just waiting for a reason to rupture? If it was going to rupture at that point in time no matter where he was, or if it was the long trip to Dubai that did it? Do you know how many times I’ve wondered if Peter would still be alive if he’d taken the job I convinced him not to take? The job he was leaning toward taking?”

“Mom. No.”

“It’s true. I have. I’ve thought about it so much. But the point is, I’ll never know. So I understand what you’re going through. But I also understand—I one hundred percent know, sweetie—that you can’t blame yourself for what happened to Cam.”

Alexa started to cry again. “I think I loved him, Mom. I really think I did. And I don’t think I’m ever going to fall in love again. I think that was my one chance, and look what happened.”

“Oh, Alexa.” Rebecca thought of all the twists and turns her life had taken since she’d been Alexa’s age. The early boyfriends, the missteps and misstarts. Alexa’s father. Rebecca thought it had been all over for her after that; she thought she’d used up her chances. Then she’d met Peter and she’d thought that those blissful years were here forever. But she’d been wrong about that too. Now she knew Daniel, and there was nothing that said that he would be in her life permanently. You could take nothing for granted. Nothing. A lump in the breast, a slip of the ski, a turn of the wheel, a deer in the road—who was to say what was waiting around the corner for any of them. “That wasn’t your only chance. I promise you. It wasn’t.”