Walter stared blankly into his beer as he sat on the deck out back. He could faintly hear his daughter and her children closing their car doors and pulling out of the driveway. It was the first time he had been alone since he buried his wife two days prior. He desperately wanted some time away from the grief and condolences. Time to think.

“What’s the plan? What the Hell are you going to do with yourself now, you old son of a bitch?” he asked himself.

In forty-five years of marriage, Walter had always been in charge, but Claire had always been the motivation. Before her, he aspired to and accomplished nothing. He always pretended to be strong and driven, but she was his strength and direction.

She never knew how much she really was to him. And he never knew regret until he realized that.

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