Page 9 of Picture Perfect

The server pours me a glass of Riesling and says, “Tonight, we will serve a langoustine bisque, followed by a tasting menu of seafood raviolis. Scallop, abalone, razor clam, and lobster. Dessert will be a surprise, as requested by Mr. Cargill.”

I laugh. “This is too much, Rowan.”

“Nonsense. You’ve been through the ringer. You deserve a break.” He receives a glass of the same wine, much to my surprise.

“Drinking white?”

“Syrah is a little heavy for the seafood portion of the dinner. But it’ll go nicely with dessert.”

“Which is?”

He only smirks.

“Come on, tell me.”

“Nope. It’s a surprise, didn’t you hear?” he asks cheekily.

I shrug. “Everything else has been so far. Why not that, too?”

“That’s the spirit.” He raises his glass. “To old friends.”

“Oof,old? Really? After everything I told you about last night?”

He laughs. “How about this? Tofavoritefriends.”

“Much better. To favorite friends.” I raise my glass to that and clink his. The Riesling is perfectly chilled, despite our location. As the sun sets in the west, I can’t help but think of our past and how it led us here to this moment. “It’s been a wild ride, hasn’t it?”

“How do you mean?”

“Well—

But then the soup comes, and it smells too good to finish my sentence. Upon tasting it, I find I’m right to wait. The soup is astoundingly good. But a few bites later, I tell him, “After knowing each other for so long…then you marry Stacy and I marry Mark, and you two have kids, and…just everything. We’ve been through so much and we’re not even thirty.”

“So?” He chuckles. “Everyone acts like thirty is some monumental age, but I suspect it’s like all the others. Some good things happen, some bad things happen.”

“I get that, but it feels like death and divorce are things that should only happen to grown-ups.”

He laughs again. “I’ve got some bad news for you, kid. Wearegrown-ups.”

“After last night, believe me, I know. I have never felt so out of place in a place I used to go to.”

“How is Pinkston’s, anyway?”

“Like stepping into a time machine.”

He smiles and looks at the streaming purple colors in the sky. Then he lets out a big sigh. “If only I had a time machine…”

“Would you go forward or backward in time?”

“Can’t I do both? It’smymachine.”

I giggle. “You can do whatever you want.”

“If only that were true…” Rowan clears his throat. “I would go back and try to save Stacy. I would go forward and see what my kids’ lives are like. Small, on the grand scale of things, I know, but—

“No, I think That’s the best answer. I know people usually say things like, kill Hitler or stop some colossal disaster from happening, but when it comes down to it, we all just want our loved ones to be okay. And I don’t think that’s small on the grand scale of things, Rowan. I think that’s all that matters in the world.”

He looks me in the eyes and smiles, taking a deep breath. “I’ve missed you.”

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