and welcomed me with open arms.
“Look at you.”
“Look at you.”
“You got old.”
“So did you.”
“Impossible.”
I hugged him. He smelled faintly of airport coffee and his father’s familiar cedar aftershave. Within ten minutes we were recalling summers at Buckeye Lake. Ten minutes later he brought up my disastrous attempt to show off on a dock. By the half-hour mark, I was laughing until my eyes watered.
That was when Daniel entered. Rachel came into view first, in a camel coat, dark jeans, with a little black suitcase and loose hair. Daniel wore navy. They walked with their hands ostentatiously joined, his thumb stroking hers. She said something, and he laughed—until he saw me.
His smile simply vanished. He looked from my face to Michael’s hand on the chair back and back again, letting his fingers slip from Rachel’s. She noticed instantly.
“Daniel?”
He ignored her. Michael
