She had told him to stop saying things like that.
He had insisted.
“Promise me something, Em. If I don’t get to do all the things we planned, don’t spend your life feeling bad because you still can.”
Emma closed her eyes.
“He made me promise.”
“I know.”
“I told him he was being ridiculous.”
“He probably was being a little ridiculous.”
She gave a small, broken laugh.
“But he was serious.”
“Yes.”
She looked at Felix’s photograph.
“I think I’ve been so busy trying to remember him that I forgot he wanted me to keep living.”
I brushed a strand of hair away from her face.
“You can miss your brother and still have a wonderful life. You can laugh without betraying him. You can graduate, go to college, fall in love, travel, and grow old. None of those things take anything away from the time you had together.”
