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He picked up his beer "Never"

"And none of therinned "They try"

"So you don’t ever invest yourself e laid"

"Pretty much"

She’d done that before she met Matt and kne empty it could be "Don’t you wantshe uy What happened?"

"Nice is a lot less fun Conorant kid forever, did you?"

"You were never ignorant" Inexperienced,in confidence "I hoped you’d stay honorable"

"Have I violated some moral code? The women I see are very clear on my terms I’m not exclusive and I don’t do relationships If they don’t like that, they don’t have to accept the invitation"

It sounded fair, but Matt’s dating philosophy left her with a sick feeling in her stogest being to help Gabe connect with his father She’d also secretly hoped to find so still alive between herself and Matt

While the passion lived on, she wasn’t sure about thewhat she did about his past and how he’d loved her, she wanted to say no But it had been a long tied

"I need to use the restroom," she said and slid out of the booth

She walked into the bathroom and pulled out her cell phone Paula picked up on the first ring

"Can you do me a favor?" Jesse asked quietly "Can you call back in five minutes and tell me Gabe has a fever?"

Paula knehere she was and whom she ith Jesse expected a lot of questions Instead the other wohed, then said she would

Jesse returned to the table Matt talkedAs she listened, Jesse wondered how she could be so attracted to him and so sad at the same time Who was he, really? Was he this new and not-improved version of himself or did the other Matt still exist? Hoas she supposed to find out?

She didn’t have any anshen her phone rang

"RED OR WHITE?" Paula asked, holding up a bottle of each

"I’ to be picky," Jesse said

She’d just put Gabe to bed Being with him had helped shake some of her mood after her aborted dinner with Matt, but not all of it

"Red then" Paula opened the bottle and poured theood for us"

"I need so that is"

They went into the family roo chair

"I’ry Part of me wants to understand and part of me wants to point out that I did try to tell hi or what he’s after"

"He was totally out of his element with Gabe," Paula told her "I probably should have helped, but I was too angry I can’t believe he let you go, knowing you were pregnant"

"He never thought the baby was his"

"Still He should have been sure"

Jesse agreed, but that didn’t change the past "I know this is all a surprise to hi, but there’s still so er Does he really want a relationship with Gabe? Can he get past wanting to punish ?

"A lot of this is rew up poor and always had terrible taste inoff with my money I kneanted more I wanted to be respectable, so I worked three jobs to save the ienist"

"That can’t have been easy," Jesse said, trying not to react to Paula’s confessions She’d had no idea the other woer

"It wasn’t, but I made it On my thirty-fifth birthday I s and leftIt was too much I went out for a drive and when a truck crossed the double yellow line and headed right forto take the easy way out"

Jesse held in a gasp "I had no idea"

"It’s not soured I’d be dead and all my troubles would be over" She took a sip of her wine "Except I didn’t die I don’t re about the crash I woke up on the side of the road The car was totaled and there wasn’t a scratch onto listen I’d been given a second chance and I was going to iven that same second chance "Your baby"

Paula nodded "I vowed to be the bestI could think of for Matthew Maybe too much I know I kept him too close to me I liked that I was the most ie I was lonely and he was all I had"

"You didn’t do anything wrong," Jesse told her

"You’re lovely to say that, but we both know I made plenty of mistakes I kept his I held on too tight"

Jesse sighed "We do the best we can e have Didn’t Maya Angelou say that? And e know better, we do better"

"I wish I’d known better sooner I ht I was losing him to you, but in the end, I pushed him away myself"

"I never wanted to take hiht I just wanted him to be the best he could be"