Ethan’s eyebrows rose.
Denise corrected herself quickly.
“In a consistent way.”
“Better,” he said.
She nodded.
“I have been talking about it for months. I didn’t know how to start.”
“So you chose graduation?”
“It seemed important.”
“That is why it was a bad day to choose,” Ethan said.
Denise accepted that too.
“I see that now.”
I watched her carefully.
“Why now?”
There it was.
The question she had been avoiding.
Denise touched the edge of the envelope.
“Because Jonathan and I are getting married.”
I glanced at him.
He looked mildly uncomfortable at becoming part of the sentence.
Denise continued.
“He has a daughter. Lily. She’s thirteen. We’ve been talking about what family will look like.”
Ethan leaned back.
“So you decided you needed your son.”
Denise winced.
“I realized I had a son I had spent years keeping at a safe distance.”
“Safe for who?”
