Goodbye, Mr. Regret

"Mr. Zimmerman, I'm sorry about last night—I really thought Timothy wouldn't

show up."

Vince shook his head. "No, I should be the one apologizing. I'd already spoken to him, and he said he wasn't coming. Someone else in my family must have invited him behind my back."

The truth was, when Vince called Timothy and told him not to come to his grandfather's birthday dinner, he'd only done it to take a jab at Timothy. He never really intended to keep Timothy away. He'd said it because he couldn't imagine Timothy leaving Jessica's side, but he also didn't want Jessica to realize he was lying. In the end, he still wanted to be close to her.

He couldn't say exactly why, but there was something different about seeing her compared to everyone else.

"By the way," Vince added, "the gift you gave my grandfather-he absolutely loved it. He came here today looking for you, actually. There are two things he wanted me to pass along."

looked up at him,

He wanted to ask you last night, in front of everyone at the party, but

the gift hadn't been given was simple-Larkin wanted to see Jessica

thought for a moment. Applying for heritage status seemed like a good idea; it would help fulfill a wish her

Larkin's goddaughter... that was

agreed, knowing she had only six months left to live, she'd just be bringing

being so kind to me? Is it just

her message and smiled. "That's not the whole story. There's something I haven't told you yet. When I brought your work home, my grandfather recognized

Larkin had ever said about Jessica's grandmother. Jessica hadn't

her grandfather, and her mother had died young. Her father had disappeared long ago, and she hadn't