“First, whatever I tell you,” he says, “stays here. You can’t
tell Cass.”
“We’re sisters. Isn’t that what you and Heather said? Sis-
ters, divorce aside. Sisters rely on each other. Sisters—”
“You’re sisters, yes. But this information . . . look, I love
Cassidy, and I love Heather—”
This floors me for a second. They’re getting divorced. But
he loves Heather? I mean, sure, exes can care about each other.
But Dad’s never said that he still loves Mom—not in those
words, not even last night.
“—but I don’t want to talk to them about Trina. At least
not yet. They’re not levelheaded like you and me. They have a
tendency to blow things out of proportion sometimes, and this
is one instance when a level head is
absolutely necessary
. Why do
you think I didn’t invite Ken Eschermann in last night?”
I look him in the eye for what feels like the first time this
morning.
“Because I didn’t want to get into it in front of Cass. And
then later, I tried to talk to you about Trina, but you were so
defensive, and so worked up, and convinced I’d lied to you—”
“You
did
lie to me.”
“I prefer to think of it as delaying the conversation until a
more appropriate time.”
And I prefer to think of
that
as rationalization.
“And then we started talking about your mom. Sam, I
didn’t want to ruin that.”
That makes sense, I guess.
“I should’ve known you’d look her up. I should’ve thought
it through and talked with you last night. Is this why you
didn’t sleep?”
“It’s part of it. I mean, not knowing about Mom? Okay, I’m
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