My daughter pulled on my beach cover-up and said quietly, ‘Mommy, Daddy Told Me Not to Tell You What He and Uncle Jim Did in Our Hotel Room’

then, sand in her hair and triumph on her face.

“Uncle Jim, come see! It has a moat!”

Jim scooped her up with an exaggerated grunt.

“A moat? What kind of engineer are you, kid?”

“The best one,” Lily declared.

I watched them walk toward the water, my brother and my daughter, and I told myself the tightness I’d noticed in Jim’s jaw was just leftover stress continue reading …