Andy and I sat on the couch, staring at the place where Claudia, our Christmas tree, had stood only a few hours earlier, as if this would make her reappear. The silence in the house was inescapable. Brad had returned to school for the second half of his freshman year in college. There was another space next to Jake, the big, loveable, yellow lab. Annie was gone. That left an empty space in our hearts as well.
“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” Andy asked as he gently rubbed the ring on the third finger of my right hand. He’d placed the ring there last summer when we were officially married in Boston. The ring matched the one he wore on the third finger of his left hand. I wore the ring on my right hand as I still wore the ring Patti had placed on the left hand that day so long ago when we had beco
