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Looking down into her face, he knew she was No pretense lay hidden in her wide eyes or in the concerned twist of her et used to that Part of him already had

Uncomfortable with the realization, he turned away “Yeah They divorced I greith reat” He knew this speech by rote “Two guys in a guy house”

She put the bon in front of hi at the same time

“I found her” His voice cracked He’d never told anyone before, not even his dad, but he wanted—no, needed to tell Claire “I was seventeen and about to graduate high school It see at Absolute with dad since I was old enough to file, so it really wasn’t very hard to do a records search”

He reers had flown across the keyboard He must have looked over his shoulder a million times to make sure his father couldn’t see the screen It had only taken a few minutes and boom, he’d found her

“She’d gotten remarried a few years after she left us They lived on a ranch two hours outside of Denver I toldto a concert with friends and drove out there I parked my truck on the side of the road, down a bit froured she’d have to get the rayer, heavier than dad’s pictures, but it was her”

His gut had wrenched when she’d checked her mail He’d looked down at his white knuckles wrapped around the steering wheel as hate and love spun around inside him in a confused ind Even now, the picture of her reaching into that battered metal mailbox put a hitch in his breath

“Then I saw the school bus in irl got out Eleed them She loved them I could see it”

The profound sense of rejection had hit him like a slap across the face Ever since, with every e h his life

Until now Until Claire

Jake looked down He’d crushed the egg Claire had given hiers “I must have left marks on the road, I took off so fast”

She handed hio back? Contact her at all?”

He shook his head and tossed the dirty towel onto the prep table “No That part of my life’s over Doesn’t matter anymore”

Thankfully, she said nothing to that He locked up his teenage-boy hurt and cracked the rest of the eggs into the bowl in silence

He had breakfast-for-dinner whipped up in no tiot all about his food when a syrup-drenched piece of French toast left a trail of sticky sweetness on the corner of her et it all that way, she wiped up the rest with her er and sucked it off