No, it doesn’t. But I’ve spent most of my life ensuring that particular hurt stays buried deep where it can’t weaken me. Until recently, when I thought I might lose Rowan the same way. Then I found that the pain hadn’t gone away or softened. It was still there, waiting for its day in the sun.
“Your turn,” I say, shoving the spotlight away from myself. “Tell me something I don’t know about you.”
She thinks for a moment. “I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little.”
“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.”
“You’ve always seemed a bit otherworldly to me.”
She laughs softly. “That’s either very romantic or extremely offensive.”
“The former,” I assure her. “Definitely the former.”
Her thumb taps each of my knuckles in turn like piano keys. “When I was ten, I saved up my allowance for six
