“No. But I expect you to respect the dead.”
I laughed so hard I had to sit down.
For a moment, I could almost see the two boys again, arguing at our kitchen table.
Then Theo went quiet.
“Sometimes I still hear him,” he said.
I looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“Not literally. Just in my head. When something happens, I think about what he’d say.”
I nodded.
“I do that too.”
He smiled.
“I think he’d make fun of me for still having that dress.”
I laughed.
“He would absolutely make fun of you.”
“Good. I’d hate for him to become sentimental just because he’s dead.”
That was the first time Theo had made a joke about Jack’s death without immediately looking guilty.
I was proud of him.
I was proud of both of us.
When Theo graduated from college, Daniel and I sat beside his mother in the auditorium.
