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There was an aard silence while Piper rocked back and forth slightly in her chair “We talk…but not like that”

Melanie sighed deeply and put on her stern voice “Well, honey, you have to tell him how you feel You’re a mess”

“I can’t”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because…it’s so not him I mean, commitment is like the Antichrist to him—he doesn’t even have a picture of hisHis dad’s an asshat, so that’s excusable”

“But you say you love this guy in spite of his aversion to faed and took another tissue out of the box for Piper “It’s not unusual for wouys who our ainst and who drive fathers into a protective rage I see it a lot, and soet married”

“They do?”

“Yeah I won’t bore you with the divorce statistics, though”

“You follow through on all that? After your bill’s been settled and they go on their honeyh-profile drea I avoid commissions that have Teht your job was a dreaood unless you plant bugs on theet aith it” She cracked open a luxurious box of Belgian chocolate-coated caraot to tell hiers in her lap Her voice cracked “I can’t”

“Tellat the mouth and throw himself out of the nearest ”

“Of course he won’t You have to do it”

“I’m too scared”

“You still have to do it or wonder for the rest of your life ould have happened if you had stepped up to the plate and opened your heart”

Piper threw her head back and stared at the ceiling “You’re way too good at this”

“I have a lot of experience from what I’ve seen of other people’s lives–doesn’twith my own”