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She laughed harshly, trying not to picture all six-foot-plus of Matt DeLeo pounding the streets, building up a sweat “She works us really hard I’m not sure you could keep up”

“A she?”

“Yes, she” He was sucking her in again and it had to stop “You should go now I’ll feed the cat, I promise The kittens are asleep, and I don’t want theo”

He put the cat down and stood up “Will you ain “Are you out of your mind?”

“Probably So will you?”

“You don’t even knohat ainst every aspect of how you like to live your life To you, it’s just an eet their oay To con wo them into bed”

He nodded aardly “Okay, how about itthat two people realize they love each other so much that they can never replace each other It means that they die a little every time they have to be apart It ether like buy property and have babies and they want the whole world to know so they tie theally?”

“Until they suddenly think a divorce would be the next logical step Or one of thee is forever”

“Forever”

His hands fisted “That’s what I think, anyway”

“So what happened to the guy who burned his neck tie, has no fixed address, and freaks out if he collects as much as a handful of postcards? No commitment, no pets, no stuff: that’s who you are, Matt You can’t do it”

He shook his head “Sit back down and listen”

“I already have and your fivein that one word, and her knees suddenly felt weak She flopped back into the chair “Five more minutes, that’s all”

“I freaked out on our last day, you’re right The things you said in the car cut deep, but that’s because they were true and I couldn’t handle it I’d been fighting with s for you and knew I had to do so, but I always seeo and stupidly thought that so feel better, that I wouldn’t care anyic?”

He nodded “So I ran off I didn’t even turn up to the launch”

“You’re kidding me?” Shock hit her between the eyes and ly? “But that launch meant so much to you, your baby—”

“It didn’t mean nearly as much to me as what I’d just lost What I’d thrown out of my car onto the sidewalk in a childish tantrum” He hunched down in front of her so that their eyes were level “I was also angry, raging with o to Boston, to get answers from my mom and to hurt her as ood even though they screwed up my childhood and leftclearly I was just lashing out and buying a plane ticket into another dead end, another dark place that I’d have an excuse to leave and never go back to I intended that trip to be closure, that me and Mom and Boston would be over, as if ic, yes, but this tiot fixed It was different Mom was…Mom was like a mom to me No harsh words, just open arms and…”