Page 87 of The Yoga Teacher

Robert let out a laugh. "No, we didn’t."

Hannah leaned forward, genuinely curious. "What happened?"

Elaine exhaled, tilting her head slightly as if remembering. "Life. Miscommunication. Stubbornness. We wanted different things, or at least wethoughtwe did." She smiled, but there was something wistful in it. "We divorced when we were thirty-two."

"But you’re back together now," Hannah said.

"Married again at sixty-five," Robert confirmed. "Ran into each other at a mutual friend’s funeral, of all places. Spent hours talking. It was like…" He hesitated, then looked at Elaine, something soft in his expression. "Like coming home again."

Hannah’s chest tightened.

Like coming home again.

The words struck something deep inside her, something she had locked away after Daniel.

She had imagined growing old with him. She had pictured it so clearly—watching the lines of his face deepen with time, the silver threading through his dark hair.

She hadlooked forwardto that.

She had imagined Sunday mornings with gray in their hair and years of history between them, moving through the world together with the kind of love that had been built, not just found.

Daniel would beincrediblein his forties. His fifties. His sixties.

Now that future would belong to someone else.

She swallowed, forcing herself to focus on Robert and Elaine. "Do you ever regret the time apart?"

Elaine considered that. "Regret? No. But I do wish we hadn’t been so scared of working through the hard parts. We threw something away before we really understood what we were losing."

Robert nodded. "It’s easy to think you have all the time in the world. Until you don’t."

Hannah felt something sharp press against her ribs.

Because wasn’t that what she and Daniel had done?

Or rather—whathehad done?

Thrown something away before he understood what he was losing?

The thought burned.

Because shehadunderstood.

She had always understood.

Hannah exhaled slowly. "I think you two are going to be incredible mentors."

Elaine’s smile widened. "I hope so, dear."

As Morgan stepped back in to finalize their paperwork, Hannah sat there, fingers curled around the edge of her desk, her mind spinning.

For the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel justangertoward Daniel.

She feltsadfor him.

Maybe, one day—years from now—he would sit across from someone and say the same thing Robert had just said.

"It’s easy to think you have all the time in the world. Until you don’t."

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