Dr. Hidalgo

As the years slowly moved on, we settled into our new lives and began enjoying the success of our businesses in Radcliffe. I continued to experience moments like the one with the song in the backyard back in Huntsville. They were sporadic, but every time I thought I'd had my last, it'd happen again. Certain things seemed to set them off, only there wasn't much rhyme or reason other than they'd happen whenever something inadvertently awakened a vivid memory of Madeline.

I was nowhere near ready to consider diving into any type of serious relationship even several years after her death, but I had hooked up a few times. The first time I tried I'd had a few beers in me, and at first, I felt fine. Kissing someone else's lips still felt wrong, but I reasoned it'd been long enough and it was part of moving on. Then halfway through as the making out got heavier, I had visuals of Madeline and the giddy way she'd greet me every time I picked her up. That alone was enough to nearly stop my heart