.." She broke off. I saw her eyes glistening in the firelight but she didn't let the tears fall. I knew the pain of our loss was still too strong for ...er to talk about it much. We'd lost Carla's brother, her husband and their infant son in an accident fifteen years before. My wife -- Carla's mom -- and I had been with Carla in her car while George, Steve and little Alex drove in George's SUV. We had been returning from a weekend at the Oregon coast when the SUV was slammed into a tree by a. A few windows had lights behind them. I came to a lake and walked all the way around it on a bike path, listening to my footsteps, some crickets, and one or two night birds. There were only the night creatures and me. I thought, here you are, alone again, your natural place in the world. The lake was covered by a low, flat mist. In places I could run my hand through it. It came away just a little damp. Finally back to my apartment. I found my old Shakespeare, turned to the plays. There was the. It wasn't easy, but I managed to slip off to my office and take my new route to the barn and my trailer. It only took a few minutes to retrieve the ring. It was in the little velvet-lined box I'd found for it and it looked better than I'd remembered. I was pretty sure it would be well received. I slipped back into the main house and my office then and then headed for my bedroomThings were looking up everywhere when I walked down the hall. Mary, Marjorie, and Carolyn were just about to knock on. .."I grinned, "I don't care about the chair or the carpet."Do you care about me?" She asked, a tiny and shy smile starting to show up. Her trembling decreased."In my own way... Yes." I assumed."So stop doing these kinds of things to me!" She roared… But, at that moment, I knew everything was fine. "I can't believe you did this to me," she said, sounding angry, but I knew her well enough to know that she was ok with it."I'll pay for your blouse and call my personal cleaning team," I.