Honestly older.
“Thank you for coming,” he said.
I nodded.
For a while we stood in silence.
Then he said, “I brought something.”
My body tensed before I could stop it.
He noticed.
“It’s not bad.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet pouch.
Inside was Mom’s pearl earring.
Just one.
“I found it in a box of my things. I don’t know how it got there. Maybe from the jewelry box. Maybe she had it somewhere else. I should’ve given it to you sooner.”
He held it out.
I took it.
The pearl was warm from his hand.
“I don’t expect anything,” he said.
“Good.”
He smiled faintly.
“I deserved that.”
“Yes.”
He looked at Mom’s name on the stone.
“I loved her badly.”
It was the truest thing he had ever said to me.
“I know.”
“And I loved you badly too.”
My throat tightened.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“I’m trying to become someone who doesn’t ask the people I hurt to comfort me about hurting them.”
That one got through.
Not all the way.
But enough.
I looked at him.
“Are you?”
“I think so.”
“Then keep doing that.”
He wiped his eyes.
“I will.”
We stood there until the wind picked up.
Before I left, he said, “Chloe?”
I turned.
“You were never too young to understand.”
I looked at my mother’s grave.
Then back at him.