She seemed away, out the window, and then again down at me. "This is the way Beck desires matters to be. And Adam is who he is." She cradled my cheek in her hand. "It's not up to us to decide."
Lily used to be in the kitchen making blueberry muffins. She was once leaning up against the counter, stirring batter in a large steel mixing bowl. She was sporting any other one of her cotton housedresses, and I realized she'd been carrying them all summer, due to the fact they were loose. They hid how thin her palms were, the way her collarbone jutted up against her skin.
She hadn't seen me yet, and I was once tempted to run away before she did. But I didn't. I couldn't.
"Good morning, Lily," I said, and my voice sounded excessive and false, no longer like my own.
She regarded up at me and smi
