Clara packed the last of the books into the carton and sealed it. Tomorrow the movers would come and they could take care of the heavy lifting. She sighed as she looked around. Howie had loved this room; his library. But he has been gone a few years now and it was time to move on.

After being married to the same man for over forty years, Clara didn't think she would ever find love again. When Howie's heart finally gave out she had just accepted her new life as a widow. She hadn't been worried, Howie had left her very comfortable, financially. Then she had met Marty. Marty could never replace Howie but he made her laugh. He made her see that her life wasn't over yet. And yes, he was romantic.

She had thought it would be hard to tell the girls that she was moving in with a guy and that they were talking marriage. It wasn't. They were very supportive. "We just want you to be happy, Mom," the girls had said. They had both met Marty and had been charmed by him. That was his biggest gift. He was so charming. It almost made up for a slightly annoying character flaw she had discovered. It was nothing she couldn't handle, but it just meant she would have to keep an eye on him.

Clara sat down at her desk and opened her laptop. She had plenty of time. Marty wasn't coming for a couple of hours yet. She signed into her email and worked her way down through her messages. Many of her correspondents were cousins she had discovered through genealogy. Howie had laughed at her. "Why are you so worried about a hundred years of dead people?" Well, he could laugh but her hobby had helped her discover family connections all across the country and she drew comfort from her living relatives as much as she did from past generations.

Clara had created family trees for her grandkids and friends so it was only natural for her to feed Marty's name into her network once things started getting serious between them. She knew Marty had been married once before and had lost his wife, that he had been a successful commodities trader in Atlanta, and that he was fairly well off. But he claimed he didn't know much about where he came from. Clara thought she would surprise him with a personalized family tree. She was good at computer research. She seemed to have a knack for knowing when to dig deeper; when there was more to the story.

It was a bit of a shock to discover that Marty had been married not just once before, but five times in five different cities across the country. According to the social security death index he was so unlucky in love that over the last thirteen years each of his wives had died within two years of marriage to him. Clara dug deeper and was able to find local newspapers that covered the unfortunate events. Each death had been an accidental overdose of medication. Poor Marty was so distraught that as soon as he could settle his poor wife's estate he would apparently move away from the painful memories only to have tragedy strike again. She dropped the idea of creating a family tree for him. She thought it might reopen old wounds.

It was such a shame that a man so full of life, so charming and caring should have such a tragic history. Clara decided she had to help him break this run of bad luck. Her first step was to suggest they move in together. Marty felt strongly that he did not want to besmirch her reputation with such an arrangement and pushed for a quick wedding but Clara convinced him  that they should get to know each other's habits and preferences before they committed to a lifetime together.

This afternoon would begin the cohabitation trial. Clara had no doubt that she could make it work and that even after the wedding, with careful supervision of her medications, she would have a long and enjoyable life with Marty. Maybe around their first anniversary she would find a way to let him know that her lawyer held certain documents with instructions on when to open them.

And if she felt it wasn't working out? Well, she still had some of Howie's heart medications. Two could play at this game.