Page 27 of The Heart You Kept

“Like I told you.”

“Does it snow where you live?” I ask.

“Yes.” He glances down at me. “Not from where you’re from?”

“No.” I think for a moment. “I’ve only seen snow once before.”

“What?” He seems surprised.

“Yeah, it was on a school trip. We went to the Rockies. It was a ski trip, although I didn’t ski.”

“Why didn’t you ski?”

“We couldn’t afford the ski rental costs so I just watched my friends.”

“How much was the ski rental?”

I shrug as we walk. “I don’t know, I think it was like sixty-five dollars. My dad had already taken a second job…third job, actually, so that I could go on the trip at all.”

He listens as we walk.

“My mom died when I was young and….” My voice trails off.

He stays quiet as he waits for me to finish.

“My dad had to give up his full-time day job to look after us, he worked night shifts so that we could stay overnight at Grandma’s. We just scraped by, so any extra activities were a treat.”

He nods once as if acknowledging my story and we walk in silence for a while.

“How many siblings do you have?” he eventually asks.

“I have a sister and a brother.” I kiss his shoulder. “Do you have any siblings?”

“I have a sister and a brother too.” He smiles as if thinking of them fondly. “They’re the light of my life.”

“That’s nice.” I smile. “And your parents?”

“I lost my mother too.”

My face falls. “Oh no. How?”

“Car accident.”

“Did your family struggle?” I ask as I look up at him.

“Very much so, we still do.”

My heart aches for him, what are the chances we share that same grief?

“What do you do for work?” he asks to change the subject.

“I’m a math teacher.”

He frowns as if surprised. “Would never have picked that.”

“Well.” I shrug. “Numbers are my thing, what can I say.”

I walk along and I have a question on the tip of my tongue that I’ve been dying to ask. “Are you wealthy?”