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“I think so, yeah. I felt something just now. His face is on a freaking bench out there. It was like I had to stop, and when I did, it hit me. That’s Simon. He’s Cheryl and Diana’s son.”

“I guess the age fits. And he wouldn’t look like them because he was adopted.”

“Exactly. But Cheryl and Diana didn’t live here. How did he end up working at a real estate company in this town?”

“And how did he end up selling the farmhouse where Deb and Harriet lived?”

“I have no idea. I haven’t looked up Cheryl and Diana yet. I meant to, but you and I were starting this very important thing, and we have so much else to do. Pictures, that book, and–”

“Yeah, back to that, actually. How did it end up in the farmhouse? We never figured that out.”

“I bet Simon would know,” she suggested.

“You want to find him?”

“Findhim? Babe, his faceandphone number are on the bench down the street. I think we just need to call him.”

“I can’t believe I met him and didn’t put it together.” Quinn shook her head.

“Why would you? It was before you met me. Neither of us started putting anything together until we met.”

“We can actually meet him? I know I did, but I didn’t know it was him at the time, so it doesn’t count.”

“I think so, yeah,” Abby replied. “Want me to pull out my computer and do some research on Cheryl and Diana first? I think it might be weird for us to ask him a bunch of questions about them; kind of how Deborah thought wewere strange for asking her about Deb and Harriet, so she basically fled the shop.”

“Yeah, okay. I want to know what happened to them, too.”

“I’ll look it up now. You get back to work, hot stuff.” She winked and smacked Quinn’s ass.

“Hey!” Quinn laughed.

“I love your laugh,” Abby confessed, wrapping her arms around Quinn’s neck. “It’s one of my favorite things.”

“One of?”

“Well, the orgasms are definitely up there, too.”

Quinn laughed again, kissed her, and said, “I love how we can be this way with each other. It feels different than how they all were together, but no less important or even more important, if that makes sense. I just know that I love you, and I know it’s soon, but it’s also right.”

“I feel the same way. I love you, too.”

Quinn smacked Abby on the ass this time, making her laugh, and off Abby went, pulling out her computer, turning it on, connecting to Quinn’s Wi-Fi, and typing the names into search, along with the word ‘obituary.’ She waited next to no time for the results to appear, and she looked through a few of them, not finding what she needed until she finally landed on what she thought might be them. Quinn was in the front of the shop by the time Abby read through it once to herself, but she returned after dropping off her laptop up front, looking at Abby now.

“Find something?”

“Cheryl died first. She had cancer.”

“Oh,” Quinn said. “I don’t know why it hurts so much, thinking about how they all had to die so that you and I could exist – at least, in part – but it does.” She leaned against the front counter.

“Diana died two years later. It doesn’t say what she died of in the obit, so I don’t know. They lived together the whole time, though. It says Cheryl was survived by her son and her best friend. No mention of the man she had to marry, so hemust have died before her.”

“Best friend, huh?” Quinn said.

“Well, they couldn’t say what they really were to each other, could they? I guess maybe they could havethattime, but they grew up when it wasn’t safe, so they probably decided to stick with the lie instead of the truth; that they were–”

“Madly in love with each other for decades?” Quinn interrupted softly with a smile aimed right at Abby.

“Want that for us already?”