Long nights when I worked late and came home exhausted.
But Anna always gave me a reason to keep going.
So when I met Rick, my biggest concern wasn’t whether I loved him.
It was whether Anna would accept him.
I didn’t want her to think I was replacing her father.
I didn’t want her to feel that I was moving on and leaving Daniel’s memory behind.
But when I introduced them, Anna surprised me.
She liked him.
Actually, they got along remarkably well.
Rick helped her prepare for college interviews.
He listened to her practice answers.
He even drove her to one of her interviews when I couldn’t get away from work.
Anna teased him constantly about his old-fashioned music.
Rick would pretend to be offended.
I’d sit at the kitchen table watching them argue and laugh.
Sometimes I thought, Maybe this is what happiness looks like the second time around.
Then Rick proposed.
I said yes.
And Anna smiled when I told her.
At least, that’s what I remember.
Three weeks before the wedding, something changed.
It was small at first.
Anna stopped eating dinner with us.
She started spending more time in her room.
If Rick entered the kitchen, she often found a reason to leave.
