Page 126 of Someone to Watch Over Me

“My husband, Patrick, was hit by a stray bullet on a DC street when he was out to lunch,” Roni adds. “I met Derek long before I was ready for chapter two, which is what we call it in widow circles. He waited for me, and now I have a whole new life that I never wanted until I had no choice but to figure out a new path forward. Patrick and Victoria are very present in our new life. We speak of them often, and it’s important that our children know that their biological parents loved them very much.”

“I feel like I’m back in college and y’all are the professors,” Luke says with a wry grin.

“You can call me Dr. Wynter,” she says to laughter. “I’m the little kid of the crowd. I lost my twenty-year-old husband, Jaden, to bone cancer. We had one of those tragic hospital weddings that people have when time is running out. Later, I found out he’d frozen sperm before his treatment began, so I decided to have our little Willow.” She glances toward Adrian. “I’m living with Adrian and his son, Xavier, and we’re making a family together. And like the others said, it’s all complicated and messy and perfect and all the things.”

“One of these people once told me that life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” Adrian says.

“Compliments of John Lennon,” Gage adds.

“Cheers to Lennon.” Adrian raises his beer bottle to Gage. “I had other plans with my wife, Sadie, until she died suddenly right after having Xavier. I’ll never get over that she didn’t even get to hold the baby she’d wanted so badly. The best day of our lives became the worst—and best—of mine.”

“I’m so sorry, Adrian,” Angela says. “That’s so sad.”

“It was horrible, as was losing Sadie’s mother suddenly just a few months later. She’d been like a mother to me, too, and was so critical in getting me through those early months with Xavier, and then she was gone, too. It was unbearable.”

Wynter reaches for his hand.

He sends her a small smile. “We’re doing better, but the sadness is always there for what Sadie missed, what we’ve all missed with her and her mom, who died of a broken heart, if you ask me.”

“It’s amazing that more of us don’t die from the heartbreak,” Luke says. “Sometimes I wonder how it’s possible to survive it.”

Kinsley nods. “I feel that. My husband, Rory, died of pancreatic cancer forty-two days after he was diagnosed. I look back at that time as a whirlwind of bad news on top of worse news. It happened so fast, I’d barely adapted to his diagnosis when he was gone. I haven’t met my chapter two, and it’s possible that I won’t, but watching my friends get there has been such a source of inspiration for me.”

“Same,” I say as I smile at Kinsley. “ALS widow here. My husband, Jim, endured four years of hell before he died three years ago. Tom Terrific and I have only recently gotten together, but we’ve known of each other since high school. We lived together as platonic roommates for almost a year before it became romantical.”

Tom looks back at me in amusement. “Romantical. Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”

I shrug. “Whatever it is, it’s working for me.” I lean in to kiss him while the others catcall and act like fools.

“I’m Christy, and I lost my husband, Wes, to an aortic dissection that happened in front of our kids, Josie and Shawn, who you met inside. We had a bunch of rough and difficult years, but we’re doing better these days, thanks in large part to the wisdom of this brain trust that Iris and I founded along with another friend who’s now remarried and not active in the group anymore. This is Trey, who recently talked me into a new relationship that’s making me happy, even if I continue to mourn what I lost with Wes.”

“Talked you into it, huh?” Trey asks. “You led me on a merry chase.”

Christy smiles with satisfaction because that’s true.

“I’m Hallie, and this is my partner, Robin. I lost my wife, Gwen, to suicide a few years ago and have recently started seeing Robin. We’re taking it a day at a time and enjoying ourselves with many, many,manycomplications.”

“She’s referring to my stage-four breast cancer, my ex-husband, my tween and teen kids, among other things,” Robin says. “But I’m thankful for this time with Hallie and to meet all of you. She speaks of you so lovingly.”

“We’re happy to meet you, too, Robin,” Roni says.

“Tell me the truth. Are you terrified for Hallie?” Robin asks.

The rest of us exchange glances.

“It’s okay,” Robin says. “You don’t have to answer that. Just know that I understand why you would be, and all I can say is I’m going to love her so much for however long I have left. And when I’m gone, I hope I can count on all of you to be there for her.”

Damn it, the woman has made us all cry.

“Hell yes,” I tell her. “We’re here for her now and forever.”

Joy is still mopping up tears when she says, “Absolutely. I’m Mama Joy, mother to all. At least in my mind, I am.”

“You are,” I say. “One thousand percent.”

“My husband, Craig, died in his sleep at thirty-four from natural causes. Whatever that means.”

“I’m an internist,” Luke says. “It means they have no clue.”

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