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He’d just finished the sandhen she joined him at the table and dropped two htly

"Men seem to love sweets"

And soet involved Couldn’t

She nibbled on a broken cookie Then her blue eyes swept up "Tell me about your wife’s death, Dan How did the accident happen?" she asked softly

His stomach clenched as the food inside turned to a hard lump "She skidded off a road into a tree"

Kari tilted her head Askingat his pain Horribly rude

Yet he reminded her of her sister When Hannah’s baby had been stillborn, everyone said she was handling it, only she wouldn’t talk to anyone But Hannah nor a week later, Kari prodded until Hannah screaled uilty over the du toounhealthy And she’d been envious of every mother with a healthy baby, hated them, hated God, hated her husband, who somehow hadn’t prevented the death Hannah had talked and cried and talked some more

And after that, she’d been able to simply mourn for the loss of her baby

Dan’s eyes held the same tor as she decided to push him "Were you there?"

His head jerked back as if she’d slapped him

She waited "Dan?"

"Damled Pushing to his feet, he stalked across the rooot called into work I could have refused, but I didn’t And she went out partying Drinking By herself If I’d been there…"

"You think if you’d stayed home, she wouldn’t have died"

"She’d be alive" At his sides, his hands opened and closed, over and over The stark lines on his face were deepened by pain "I protect people; that’s uilt has no logic She kept her voice low the way she did when trying to pet the Garretts’ pit bull "So if I decide not to go tonight, and you get drunk and run off the road, will it besneaky little children, she kne to offer up wide-eyed innocence "That’s not the same at all," he snapped

"Isn’t it?" Kari rose and put her arms around him His body felt like a stone pillar "Unless you promised to be at her side everyPeople s happen Not your fault, Dan, any ot in an accident"

He didn’t er, Kari added softly, "You know, if you got drunk and killed yourself driving, I’d not only be grieving, I’d be furious with you for doing sonored that and just held hi his pain, sharing his pain Had she gone too far? Would he ever talk to her again?

After a ed breath, and his ently

She could have nestled there all evening, but the phone rang He stepped away fro, she went to answer it, after pointing at the table "Finish your s felt rubbery, as if he’d run a marathon, so Dan took a chair at the table After a minute, he did as the little sub ordered and drank his htness in his throat, but the rest went doell enough after that

Her voice was like aas she talked with some friend about a play rehearsal Prince padded over to lean against Dan’s leg, a co about Kari’s words

She said she’d be furious if he died being stupid Was he er?

Now the possibility had been raised, he could ale inside hietting drunk and then driving They’d fought about that before, and she’d laughed at hihtened And then she’d died…died and left hiry

His eyes burned as the unsettling e the shore The rooly hot He had to leave He walked out into the night air, leaving Kari staring after him