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“If you’ve got the right partner, he or she wouldn’t let you give up yourself They’d be watching out for your happiness at the same time” Not that it was any of his business

“He,” she blurted And then frowned “I’m attracted to men,” she said then

And he reiterated, though he didn’t knohy he was pushing it “Your abhorrence for a partner uy”

She shook her head “I won’t lead you to believe that, even if it makes you feel better I know ood at it My mother’s the same way and, believe me, my sister and I suffered for it”

Alarm bells went off in his brain “Suffered how?”

“My stepfather was a drunk He was actually a pretty cool dad when he wasn’t drinking, but when he was” She shook her head He wanted to look away To walk away He couldn’t move

And not just for his child’s sake, though that was part of it

“Was? Your mother divorced him, then?”

“No That’s the point Duane always comes first Over herself and everyone else She just has this incessant need to please him And he lets her He’s not narcissistic, really, but he likes her attention”

“Do you still see theaze was direct

“Oh, I see where you’re going with this,” she said, setting her glass on a coaster on the table between them “And you have no need to worry In the first place, Duane’s been sober for years—of his own accord And he’s been nothing but supportive He’s excited to be a grandfather He’s not an alcoholic and he didn’t drink all the time His work never suffered He never drank and drove He drank at home, and was a mean drunk until he lost it on my little sister one Sunday afternoon He cleared all alcohol out of the house that night and hasn’t taken a drink since Not even a toast of cha You have no cause to worry here While he’s pragmatic and was strict with us, he was onlyI don’t see hi out of line in years And if I ever heard hi off to my child, it would be the last time he saw me or my family”

“So that Sunday, that was the first tily with either of you?”

She wasn’t sure what the question had to do with the future well-being of her child But she didn’t , so said, “Physically, yes He was never physically abusive, but he’d get really verbally abusive when he was drinking Moo there on our own if he ever drank when she wasn’t hoh, he’d burst into my sister’s room He’d never done that before The closed door usually stopped him For some reason that day it pissed him off”

She couldn’t tell by his expression what kind of conclusions he was drawing And ke

pt telling herself it didn’t matter The minute she said they were done, they were done Period She’d kept up her side of the agreement