Then Diane said, "I called Martha."
Richard looked up.
"She answered?"
"Yes."
"How did it go?"
"Badly."
"What did you say?"
Diane picked at the edge of a paper napkin.
"I apologized. Then I ruined it by explaining why I acted that way."
Richard almost laughed because it was so exactly Diane.
She glared at him. "Don't."
"I'm not."
"You are internally."
"A little."
Diane sighed.
"Martha stopped me and said, 'If your apology needs a closing argument, you're not apologizing. You're applying for acquittal.'"
Richard laughed out loud.
Diane stared at him, then reluctantly smiled.
"She is terrifying."
"Harold says that's why he married her."
"I believe him."
The smile faded.
"I called back twenty minutes later."
"And?"
"I said two sentences. I was wrong. I am sorry. Then I stopped talking."
"What did she say?"
"Thank you."
Richard waited.
"That's all?"
"That's all."
Diane looked almost offended by the simplicity.
"I spent twenty minutes preparing the first apology and thirty seconds preparing the second. The second one worked better."
Richard reached across the table and took her hand.
She looked at him.
"I owe Chloe one without a closing argument too," Diane said.
"Yes."
"You do as well."
"I know."
She squeezed his hand once.
Three days into their honeymoon, Chloe finally called her mother.
She had ignored seven messages, two voicemails, and one bouquet sent to the mountain lodge with a card that said only I LOVE YOU. CALL WHEN READY.
That restraint was so unlike Diane that Chloe almost called immediately.
She waited another day.
Ethan was reading by the fireplace when she stepped onto the cabin porch with her phone.
Snow covered the railing. The mountains beyond the valley were blue in evening light.
Diane answered before the first ring finished.
"Hi, sweetheart."
Her voice was careful.
Chloe sat on the porch bench.