The house felt different without Mom in it.
Three days since she’d left for the conference—two weeks of corporate strategy sessions in Chicago—and the silence had grown teeth. No clatter of heels on the foyer tile, no radio playing softly in the kitchen while she chopped vegetables, no bright “I’m home!” at six-thirty sharp. Just the low drone of the air conditioner fighting the July heat, the occasional groan of old hardwood settling, and the faint tick of the wall clock in the hallway.
Aliyah had come home from university ten days earlier, suitcase still half-unpacked in her childhood bedroom. She told herself she was enjoying the quiet. Mostly she was restless.
Steve was still Steve.
Tall enough that she had to tilt her head to meet his eyes, broad shoulders that used to make her fe
