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But we don’t always get ish for So far, my cell phone had been silent No Shannon No Jesse And for obvious reasons, no Kel He wasn’t—couldn’t—be here It ful that I wanted hi my attention Kel wasn’t for hting for all eternity He didn’t have a life apart fro for me with him It had been around two months since I’d seen hi of him I should file our brief connection under MISTAKES I’VE MADE, or more accurately, THINGS I WANT BUT CAN’T HAVE

Yet I foundthe crowd for him Sure, I could call him, but ould I say? Hi Missed you Killed anybody a lately? You just didn’t trifle with soels So I reether Too bad they’d all been broken into jagged shapes that cut when I tried to connect the edges

“You all right?” Chance asked, co up beside me

The reen and pointed like weapons against the darkening sky Where I’d grown up, it was relatively flat and the countryside tended toward swah altitude It changed everything fro felt like more of an achievement at seven thousand feet

Includingday

I nodded “Just tired You fit a lot of boxes in the Mustang”

“I’ood packer We used to move around a lot”

“You and Min?”

His silence felt like an affirmative Then I wondered why I didn’t know more about him, why I’d permitted his reticence A woman more confident of her self-worth wouldn’t; she’d insist on learning about her lover And if he didn’t care to share, she’dfor soer Theto Chance

At length, he offered, “I think she was hiding from someone”

“Your father…or the Montoyas?”

“Both? Min doesn’t talk about the past much”

“And you didn’t press her”

He shook his head “I never wanted to disappoint her She’d get this look, like I should know better than to ask Like it was…impolite”

“Maybe it’s a cultural thing?”

“What I’ve read suggests that it is Which is weird—that I’ what it’s like to be Korean, but I’ to people from my mom”

“Did she ever have a boyfriend when you were growing up?”

Chance laughed “Never Not that they didn’t try But she always see”

“For your dad to come back?”

“I don’t know I’, but soive me a normal American childhood, as much as she could, as much as we could afford”

“Well, at least you’re telling ht out that you don’t have the answers,” I said, sot before”