He didn’t turn around.
“Mom opened the bookstore.”
“I heard.”
“She’s doing well. Really well.”
“I’m glad.”
“She looks happy.”
I nodded.
Daniel finally faced me.
“Do you still love her?”
There it was.
The question I had spent three months trying not to answer, even to myself.
“Yes.”
He looked down at the wet pavement.
“Even after everything?”
“Especially after everything.”
He let out a long breath.
“That’s what I was afraid you’d say.” He rubbed his hands together against the cold.
“My parents’ marriage is over. I can’t fix it. I can’t make Dad become the man I thought he was, and I can’t make Mom go back to being the woman she was before all this happened.”
He swallowed.
“And I can’t tell her who she’s allowed to love.”
My heart began beating faster.
“Daniel—”
“I’m not finished.”
I closed my mouth.
He looked at me directly.
