“Why?”
“To see how it felt.”
“And?”
“Like a house.”
Mark waited.
“Not home?”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
His face fell.
Then she smiled.
“Not yet.”
Mark looked at her carefully.
Emily stepped closer.
“I don’t want to move back into the marriage we had.”
“Neither do I.”
“I don’t want to pretend the hospital didn’t happen.”
“I would never ask you to.”
“I don’t want promises.”
Mark nodded.
“What do you want?”
Emily looked around the nursery.
“A different marriage.”
He stopped breathing for a second.
“Does that mean…”
“It means I want to try.”
Mark closed his eyes.
When he opened them, he did not rush toward her.
He did not make a speech.
He simply asked, “What would trying look like?”
Emily smiled.
There it was.
The question he would once never have asked.
“Slow.”
“Okay.”
“Counseling continues.”
“Absolutely.”
“Separate finances for now.”
