But I only said, “It was necessary.”
She nodded like she understood.
She didn’t.
Not fully.
But that was okay.
Not everyone needs to understand your healing for it to be real.
Paige disappeared after dinner.
For a moment, I thought she had left.
Then I found her outside behind the venue, sitting on the stone steps under a string of lights. The blue scarf was still around her shoulders. Her bouquet rested beside her.
She looked up when she heard me.
“I was going to leave,” she admitted.
“I figured.”
“But then I thought that would make everything about me again.”
I sat beside her, careful with my dress.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Inside, music played. Laughter rose and fell. Someone announced that dessert was being served.
Outside, the air smelled like summer grass and rain that had not arrived yet.
Paige rubbed her thumb over the edge of Mom’s scarf.
