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who’s here.” She looked over at Steve. “Have you two met? Kristin, this is my brother-in-law, Steve, who’s staying with us. Steve, I’m sure Shauna’s told you all about her teacher, Miss Kissinger.”
    “This is the lady who helped me pick out your present, Sue,” he told her. “The least we can do is to invite her to our picnic. She’s already got some apples to bring along.”
    I tried not to look at Susan. I just murmured, “I’d love to go.”
    I followed them in my car to the beginning of the trail. It was a lovely walk along a ridge with views over the hills on both sides. I walked with Susan at first, with Shauna and her father and uncle running on ahead. She briefly told me her brother-in-law’s story.
    Steve O’Donnell had married right out of college and settled in the small lumber town in the north where he still lived. He loved the outdoors and so did his wife, he thought. It turned out she didn’t want to live in the middle of the great beyond without neighbors or a shopping mall. Steve had taught shop at the high school, which is what led him to making furniture now. She had felt isolated and unhappy, while he settled easily into life there. It didn’t take her long to decide to leave for brighter lights, and she’d made a new life for herself long ago.
    “Steve vowed he’d never bring another woman up there,” Susan confided. “And there really isn’t anyone in that town that’s good enough for him.” She smiled. “That’s my opinion anyway. Steve’s a big part of our family. I knew there would be somebody special for him someday, even though he’s warned me not to fix him up with anybody. That’s why I’ve been so sneaky about this. I was just thrilled when he asked a few questions about you last night. It’s not like him at all.” With that she gave an excited hop along the trail, the kind of thing I would have expected more from her daughter than from her., She took off ahead of me on the trail to catch up with the others. I don’t know what she said when she reached them, but in a few minutes Steve was coming back toward me with a look on his face that made my heart race a little faster.
    I knew from reading advice columnists that you’re supposed to get men to talk about themselves, but Steve must have read the same articles for men, because he got me to talk about myself. I told him about teaching and how I felt every fall at the beginning of the school year. I couldn’t have imagined that he’d be interested in my ideas about teaching, but he asked all the right questions, so I talked on and on until we came to the picnic spot.
    The others had already spread out the cloth and piles of different meats and cheeses and salads were arranged with a Thermos of lemonade. Shauna’s face was shining with pride at having come so far on a hike, and her mouth was full of grapes. Susan gave me a look that said more than words how happy she was, and I smiled back at her. Kevin O’Donnell looked at his brother in surprise.
    “Steve, I’ve never seen you so slow on Rider Ridge. You used to be able to run circles around me on the way up here,” he said.
    Steve reached across the French bread and took my hand.
    “Kristin and I had some things to talk about. And we’ve only begun.” He laughed at the startled expression on his brother’s face. Then he suggested, “How would it be if you all went back ahead of us? Maybe I could talk Kristin into giving me a ride back home.”
    “What a good idea,” Susan said. “Shauna is too tired to go any farther.”  She looked as happy as if she had suggested the idea herself. “We were going back after lunch, anyway.”
    I ate my lunch in a daze, listening to the good-natured bantering, trying to look relaxed while I was churning inside.
    We waved to the others and continued a little farther to a meadow covered with wild flowers. It was Steve’s turn to talk. He told me about his life and how content he’d been after he’d