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Thinking of herself in front of the door to Allishon’s apartment, Elise wondered if ht just want to consider the radical idea that your mother didn’t leave because of you or your father She left because of herself She deserted both of you because of so she had Or maybe it was that she and your father weren’t compatible Or … maybe she fell in love with someone else There are a whole host of reasons why relationships fail But one thing I know for sure? No child, notheir parents together or in a healthy relationship That’s up to the grown-ups That’s their job"

He was quiet for a long tiot up, wrapped a blanket around his waist, and stood over her

Shit, she thought

She should have known better than to try and act like his therapist It wasn’t what anyone needed in a personal relationship, for one thing For another, she wasn’t trained as a shrink

Just because you took psych classes, as he’d said, didn’t mean you were qualified to tell people how to frame their lives

"I’o--I shouldn’t have let rab my clothes froot to her feet, still wrapped in the blanket Axe had given her, he couldn’t find the words he wanted to say

"God, I’m so pissed atbefore--"

He caught her ar over her shoulder, she seemed dumbfounded "But--"

"I want to …" He cleared his throat "I want to show you so her hand, he led her past the stairs, into the kitchen, and over to the cellar door On soCouldn’t believe what he’d said Really, totally couldn’t believe that she didn’t seee hio deeper into his past with her

Even though thatthe cellar door, he kindled the lantern he’d left at the head of the stairs and then led her on a descent down the wooden steps As the yello fanned out at the bottoo of his hand and walked forward to the shelves of finished figurines "These are … incredible"

Axe hung back, aware that, as she inspected the woodland creatures his father had excised--orher a part of himself

"He was an artist," he heard hi away for her"

"Is that why you never got mated?" she murmured as her slender hand cradled a rabbit that was up on its haunches with ears pricked "Are you alorried that the female will leave you and you’ll do what he did?"

"I don’t …" Axe shrugged even though she wasn’t looking at him "I don’t think about it a lot"

Coward, he said to himself And what a liar he was