“Kenny has come back to Rossford.”
“Yes,” Dan said, lifting the cup of cocoa to his lips. “I saw him. He looks well.”
“He looks very well,” Brendan said. “I hadn’t heard of him for years, really.”
Dan nodded. He was a priest. He knew it was more important to listen than to talk.
“It was just so good to hear from him,” Brendan continued. “And then I went down to see him. I took Dena’s son Rob with me. I ought to say Kenny was living in Chicago. He’s starting back at Loretto College next week.
“You know what?” Brendan said, “I’m not entirely sure what I’m saying. What I’m really saying is… I almost had an affair with him.”
“And there it is,” Dan said, clapping Brendan’s knee.
“There what is?”
“What you’ve been trying to get out.”
“Yes,” Brendan said. “we talked. We talked a lot. But there was no affair. Do you know what Sheridan said? He actually said he understood and he was alright if we did have an affair. He gave me permission.”
“Well, now, that Sheridan’s a very progressive man.”
“But you’re not like… going to go back to him?” Meredith said.
Kenny looked at her.
“I just feel like it would be a step back.”
“It would be a total step back,” Elias agreed.
“Whaddo you mean?”
“It’s not even that Bren is a bad guy,” Chad said.
“He’s not,” Elias insisted.
“It’s just that you’ve already done that,” Meredith said.
“Exactly. You did it for years and it didn’t work out.”
“I know,” Kenny said. “But Brendan has the husband, the good career, the kid, and what do I have for my emancipation? In a fair world shouldn’t I have someone by now? Something?”
Elias thought of saying something heartwarming and perhaps cliché about hidden blessings Kenny might not be able to see. Instead what he said was, “That’s a terrible reason to go back to Bren.”
“That is actually you being at the same place you were last time you were with him,” Meredith said.
“And children aren’t everything,” Chad said. “Me and Brian never had them.”
“There were whole years,” Elias added cryptically, “That I hoped to not have them.”
“Ouch,” Meredith said.
“Does that sound bitter?”
“It sounds incredibly bitter.”
Meredith coughed and realized she could ignore it no longer. She reached into her purse for a Halls.
“Damn winter colds.”
“Speaking of the life less conventional,” Chad began, “Logan Banford.”
“And some hot brown piece of ass with him,” Meredith murmured, sucking on a cough drop. “Persian or Arab?”
“Arab,” Chad noted. “Definitely Arab.”
Kenny sank down in his chair, legs, sprawling.
“I just want someone.”
Brendan frowned and said, “I love Sheridan, but I love Ken too. You know what that’s like.”
Dan sighed.
“Most of the time you have to choose,” Dan said.
“I don’t even know what to choose,” said Brendan. “But I do know this. We have to make the choice together. All of us. It can’t just be about—”
.“I don’t know what. Something. A new challenge.”
He stopped talking as down the living room stairs tripped Rob Affren and Austin Bishop. Dan blinked at the red headed boy and the blond.
“Do you know my nephew, Rob?” Brendan gestured to the boy.
Rob came forward and Brendan said, “Well, Dena’s son, but he might as well be my nephew. This is Father Dan Malloy. He was our priest growing up. He’s still my priest now.”
“Pleased to meet you, Father,” Rob offered his warm hand and took the other through his thick copper hair.
“Yes,” Dan said, looking at the slight blond boy.
“And this is my friend, Austin,” Rob continued.
“He’s Lance’s younger brother.”
“Lance Bishop? Oh!”
“I know,” the boy said, grinning nervously, “we don’t look anything alike.”
Dan was hot all over, and Rob said, “Me and Austin are headed out with Lance. We’re going to stay at his house tonight. See you guys?”
“Are you serving at Mass tomorrow?”
“Sure thing,” Rob nodded, reaching for his coat, and passing Austin his.
When the boys were gone, Brendan said, “What was all that about?”
“I guess they were excited because it’s the holidays.”
“Not them,” Brendan said. “You?”
Elias looked up to see Lance reaching for his parka and keys.
“I’ll be back in a little bit. I’m dropping Rob and Austin off. And probably talking to Dad.”
Elias did not so much get out of his chair as stretch like a bird to kiss him, and then Lance said, “Do you think Dylan is mad?”
“No more than usual,” Elias smiled and sat down, catching Lance’s hand as the other young man looked at him with a hooked grin.
“I love you.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Elias squeezed his hand and shoved him away.
“You need to not be alone,” Chad said, at last, when Lance had departed.
“Absolutely,” Elias said to Kenny. “You need to get out of your head and be with people who love you.”
“Like us,” Logan threw an arm over Kenny.
The Arab guy was looking at him, smiling, and Elias thought that spending the night with two hot porn stars was not a bad way to open the new year.
“Ruthven’ll be there,” Logan said.
“And how can you not get enough of his dumb ass?” Meredith said. Then, “What? He’s my cousin. And he is an irrepressibly, cheerfully dumb guy. You should totally hang out with him.”
.
Awkward would have been the word Lance used to sum up his whole day. From the moment he had found himself at Sara’s house, looking at a boy who looked more like himself than did his siblings or anyone else, to the moment he had brought him home, and simply said, “I have a son,” the whole day had moved breathlessly. Lance’s parents hardly remembered Sara and they knew nothing about her having an abortion, or at least pretending to. Peter, who had always known about Dylan, simply assumed the girl was an anomaly who passed through his life with no consequence.
“I cannot tell my dad,” Lance told Fenn.
Fenn did not argue.
“We can all stay in the apartment downstairs tonight? Right?”
“Of course you can.”
“Allen hit it off with Barbara and some of the other kids.”
Fenn said, “You know Peter will want to know.”
“Well, when I’m ready.”
“How long do you think you can hide him?” Fenn said.
“How do you feel about Lance and the guys taking our apartment?” Brendan demanded, grinning out of the side of his mouth as Sheridan stepped out of the shower.
“I feel like my mom is a queen for watching Rafe and I feel like my sister in law and Will are royalty for putting us up. Not that this house isn’t huge.”
“Come here,” Brendan called Sheridan.
Sheridan sat down beside him and Brendan murmured, “You smell so good.”
“So,” Sheridan said, as he handed the bottle of lotion to Brendan and turned around so Brendan could rub lotion into his back, “Did your Father Dan help you out?”
“Huh?” Brendan grunted while he rubbed the lotion in his palms to warm it.
“I’ve decided,” Sheridan said, “I’m going out for a bit. I might not come home. I need to have a long talk. I need to spend time with Logan.”
“Uh… I think Logan has company,” Brendan said, rubbing Sheridan’s back.
“I know, Bren. His company is Kenny. Among others. I’m sick of feeling like I stole him from you.”
“Sher!”
“We were all friends once. I mean, I looked up to both of you. I loved both of you.”
“You didn’t steal him.”
“Bren, I had sex with you three times while you were with Kenny.”
“We weren’t talking. We were at a bad place.”
“You were at a place where you’d just gotten off the phone with him and knew you were getting back with him, and I didn’t care. I sucked your dick and went to bed with you. I went to bed with you a lot. And the whole time we did it we knew I was going back to Logan and you were going back to Kenny.”
Brendan had become rigid. His hands rested on Sheridan’s back.
“You know that’s how it happened. And you can’t stop thinking about Kenny and, in a way, neither can I. I need to see him. By myself. Okay.”
Brendan took a deep breath.
“Fine,” he said.
“The two of you…” Sheridan said. “I think the two of you have forfeited your turn to decide how things turn out.”
“Whaddo you…?” Brendan drew back.
“Do you trust me?” Sheridan said.
“I don’t like that question.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“I might end up handling this in a way you don’t like.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“At the moment neither do I. Not exactly. I just… I’m getting an idea.”
“Fine,” Brendan said.
“We’ll be happy again, I promise,” Sheridan said.
“I am happy!” Brendan swore. “You have to understand that I am happy.”
“Well, then happier,” Sheridan said. “And I will be. Things will be exactly how they should be. I promise. But I have to be with Kenny. See him. Make shit right in every way. Okay?”
“Yeah,” Brendan shook his head, feeling a little stupid. “I guess if I’m going to be alright with Kenny, you have to be alright with him too. I never thought about that. I put myself at the center of stuff.”
“Well,” Sheridan said. “for a moment I am going to put myself at the center. Okay?”
Brendan nodded.
“Bren?” Sheridan said.
“Yeah?”
“Before I leave, would you make love to me?”
“Kenny has come back to Rossford.”
“Yes,” Dan said, lifting the cup of cocoa to his lips. “I saw him. He looks well.”
“He looks very well,” Brendan said. “I hadn’t heard of him for years, really.”
Dan nodded. He was a priest. He knew it was more important to listen than to talk.
“It was just so good to hear from him,” Brendan continued. “And then I went down to see him. I took Dena’s son Rob with me. I ought to say Kenny was living in Chicago. He’s starting back at Loretto College next week.
“You know what?” Brendan said, “I’m not entirely sure what I’m saying. What I’m really saying is… I almost had an affair with him.”
“And there it is,” Dan said, clapping Brendan’s knee.
“There what is?”
“What you’ve been trying to get out.”
“Yes,” Brendan said. “we talked. We talked a lot. But there was no affair. Do you know what Sheridan said? He actually said he understood and he was alright if we did have an affair. He gave me permission.”
“Well, now, that Sheridan’s a very progressive man.”
“But you’re not like… going to go back to him?” Meredith said.
Kenny looked at her.
“I just feel like it would be a step back.”
“It would be a total step back,” Elias agreed.
“Whaddo you mean?”
“It’s not even that Bren is a bad guy,” Chad said.
“He’s not,” Elias insisted.
“It’s just that you’ve already done that,” Meredith said.
“Exactly. You did it for years and it didn’t work out.”
“I know,” Kenny said. “But Brendan has the husband, the good career, the kid, and what do I have for my emancipation? In a fair world shouldn’t I have someone by now? Something?”
Elias thought of saying something heartwarming and perhaps cliché about hidden blessings Kenny might not be able to see. Instead what he said was, “That’s a terrible reason to go back to Bren.”
“That is actually you being at the same place you were last time you were with him,” Meredith said.
“And children aren’t everything,” Chad said. “Me and Brian never had them.”
“There were whole years,” Elias added cryptically, “That I hoped to not have them.”
“Ouch,” Meredith said.
“Does that sound bitter?”
“It sounds incredibly bitter.”
Meredith coughed and realized she could ignore it no longer. She reached into her purse for a Halls.
“Damn winter colds.”
“Speaking of the life less conventional,” Chad began, “Logan Banford.”
“And some hot brown piece of ass with him,” Meredith murmured, sucking on a cough drop. “Persian or Arab?”
“Arab,” Chad noted. “Definitely Arab.”
Kenny sank down in his chair, legs, sprawling.
“I just want someone.”
Brendan frowned and said, “I love Sheridan, but I love Ken too. You know what that’s like.”
Dan sighed.
“Most of the time you have to choose,” Dan said.
“I don’t even know what to choose,” said Brendan. “But I do know this. We have to make the choice together. All of us. It can’t just be about—”
.“I don’t know what. Something. A new challenge.”
He stopped talking as down the living room stairs tripped Rob Affren and Austin Bishop. Dan blinked at the red headed boy and the blond.
“Do you know my nephew, Rob?” Brendan gestured to the boy.
Rob came forward and Brendan said, “Well, Dena’s son, but he might as well be my nephew. This is Father Dan Malloy. He was our priest growing up. He’s still my priest now.”
“Pleased to meet you, Father,” Rob offered his warm hand and took the other through his thick copper hair.
“Yes,” Dan said, looking at the slight blond boy.
“And this is my friend, Austin,” Rob continued.
“He’s Lance’s younger brother.”
“Lance Bishop? Oh!”
“I know,” the boy said, grinning nervously, “we don’t look anything alike.”
Dan was hot all over, and Rob said, “Me and Austin are headed out with Lance. We’re going to stay at his house tonight. See you guys?”
“Are you serving at Mass tomorrow?”
“Sure thing,” Rob nodded, reaching for his coat, and passing Austin his.
When the boys were gone, Brendan said, “What was all that about?”
“I guess they were excited because it’s the holidays.”
“Not them,” Brendan said. “You?”
Elias looked up to see Lance reaching for his parka and keys.
“I’ll be back in a little bit. I’m dropping Rob and Austin off. And probably talking to Dad.”
Elias did not so much get out of his chair as stretch like a bird to kiss him, and then Lance said, “Do you think Dylan is mad?”
“No more than usual,” Elias smiled and sat down, catching Lance’s hand as the other young man looked at him with a hooked grin.
“I love you.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Elias squeezed his hand and shoved him away.
“You need to not be alone,” Chad said, at last, when Lance had departed.
“Absolutely,” Elias said to Kenny. “You need to get out of your head and be with people who love you.”
“Like us,” Logan threw an arm over Kenny.
The Arab guy was looking at him, smiling, and Elias thought that spending the night with two hot porn stars was not a bad way to open the new year.
“Ruthven’ll be there,” Logan said.
“And how can you not get enough of his dumb ass?” Meredith said. Then, “What? He’s my cousin. And he is an irrepressibly, cheerfully dumb guy. You should totally hang out with him.”
.
Awkward would have been the word Lance used to sum up his whole day. From the moment he had found himself at Sara’s house, looking at a boy who looked more like himself than did his siblings or anyone else, to the moment he had brought him home, and simply said, “I have a son,” the whole day had moved breathlessly. Lance’s parents hardly remembered Sara and they knew nothing about her having an abortion, or at least pretending to. Peter, who had always known about Dylan, simply assumed the girl was an anomaly who passed through his life with no consequence.
“I cannot tell my dad,” Lance told Fenn.
Fenn did not argue.
“We can all stay in the apartment downstairs tonight? Right?”
“Of course you can.”
“Allen hit it off with Barbara and some of the other kids.”
Fenn said, “You know Peter will want to know.”
“Well, when I’m ready.”
“How long do you think you can hide him?” Fenn said.
“How do you feel about Lance and the guys taking our apartment?” Brendan demanded, grinning out of the side of his mouth as Sheridan stepped out of the shower.
“I feel like my mom is a queen for watching Rafe and I feel like my sister in law and Will are royalty for putting us up. Not that this house isn’t huge.”
“Come here,” Brendan called Sheridan.
Sheridan sat down beside him and Brendan murmured, “You smell so good.”
“So,” Sheridan said, as he handed the bottle of lotion to Brendan and turned around so Brendan could rub lotion into his back, “Did your Father Dan help you out?”
“Huh?” Brendan grunted while he rubbed the lotion in his palms to warm it.
“I’ve decided,” Sheridan said, “I’m going out for a bit. I might not come home. I need to have a long talk. I need to spend time with Logan.”
“Uh… I think Logan has company,” Brendan said, rubbing Sheridan’s back.
“I know, Bren. His company is Kenny. Among others. I’m sick of feeling like I stole him from you.”
“Sher!”
“We were all friends once. I mean, I looked up to both of you. I loved both of you.”
“You didn’t steal him.”
“Bren, I had sex with you three times while you were with Kenny.”
“We weren’t talking. We were at a bad place.”
“You were at a place where you’d just gotten off the phone with him and knew you were getting back with him, and I didn’t care. I sucked your dick and went to bed with you. I went to bed with you a lot. And the whole time we did it we knew I was going back to Logan and you were going back to Kenny.”
Brendan had become rigid. His hands rested on Sheridan’s back.
“You know that’s how it happened. And you can’t stop thinking about Kenny and, in a way, neither can I. I need to see him. By myself. Okay.”
Brendan took a deep breath.
“Fine,” he said.
“The two of you…” Sheridan said. “I think the two of you have forfeited your turn to decide how things turn out.”
“Whaddo you…?” Brendan drew back.
“Do you trust me?” Sheridan said.
“I don’t like that question.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“I might end up handling this in a way you don’t like.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“At the moment neither do I. Not exactly. I just… I’m getting an idea.”
“Fine,” Brendan said.
“We’ll be happy again, I promise,” Sheridan said.
“I am happy!” Brendan swore. “You have to understand that I am happy.”
“Well, then happier,” Sheridan said. “And I will be. Things will be exactly how they should be. I promise. But I have to be with Kenny. See him. Make shit right in every way. Okay?”
“Yeah,” Brendan shook his head, feeling a little stupid. “I guess if I’m going to be alright with Kenny, you have to be alright with him too. I never thought about that. I put myself at the center of stuff.”
“Well,” Sheridan said. “for a moment I am going to put myself at the center. Okay?”
Brendan nodded.
“Bren?” Sheridan said.
“Yeah?”
“Before I leave, would you make love to me?”
“Kenny has come back to Rossford.”
“Yes,” Dan said, lifting the cup of cocoa to his lips. “I saw him. He looks well.”
“He looks very well,” Brendan said. “I hadn’t heard of him for years, really.”
Dan nodded. He was a priest. He knew it was more important to listen than to talk.
“It was just so good to hear from him,” Brendan continued. “And then I went down to see him. I took Dena’s son Rob with me. I ought to say Kenny was living in Chicago. He’s starting back at Loretto College next week.
“You know what?” Brendan said, “I’m not entirely sure what I’m saying. What I’m really saying is… I almost had an affair with him.”
“And there it is,” Dan said, clapping Brendan’s knee.
“There what is?”
“What you’ve been trying to get out.”
“Yes,” Brendan said. “we talked. We talked a lot. But there was no affair. Do you know what Sheridan said? He actually said he understood and he was alright if we did have an affair. He gave me permission.”
“Well, now, that Sheridan’s a very progressive man.”
“But you’re not like… going to go back to him?” Meredith said.
Kenny looked at her.
“I just feel like it would be a step back.”
“It would be a total step back,” Elias agreed.
“Whaddo you mean?”
“It’s not even that Bren is a bad guy,” Chad said.
“He’s not,” Elias insisted.
“It’s just that you’ve already done that,” Meredith said.
“Exactly. You did it for years and it didn’t work out.”
“I know,” Kenny said. “But Brendan has the husband, the good career, the kid, and what do I have for my emancipation? In a fair world shouldn’t I have someone by now? Something?”
Elias thought of saying something heartwarming and perhaps cliché about hidden blessings Kenny might not be able to see. Instead what he said was, “That’s a terrible reason to go back to Bren.”
“That is actually you being at the same place you were last time you were with him,” Meredith said.
“And children aren’t everything,” Chad said. “Me and Brian never had them.”
“There were whole years,” Elias added cryptically, “That I hoped to not have them.”
“Ouch,” Meredith said.
“Does that sound bitter?”
“It sounds incredibly bitter.”
Meredith coughed and realized she could ignore it no longer. She reached into her purse for a Halls.
“Damn winter colds.”
“Speaking of the life less conventional,” Chad began, “Logan Banford.”
“And some hot brown piece of ass with him,” Meredith murmured, sucking on a cough drop. “Persian or Arab?”
“Arab,” Chad noted. “Definitely Arab.”
Kenny sank down in his chair, legs, sprawling.
“I just want someone.”
Brendan frowned and said, “I love Sheridan, but I love Ken too. You know what that’s like.”
Dan sighed.
“Most of the time you have to choose,” Dan said.
“I don’t even know what to choose,” said Brendan. “But I do know this. We have to make the choice together. All of us. It can’t just be about—”
.“I don’t know what. Something. A new challenge.”
He stopped talking as down the living room stairs tripped Rob Affren and Austin Bishop. Dan blinked at the red headed boy and the blond.
“Do you know my nephew, Rob?” Brendan gestured to the boy.
Rob came forward and Brendan said, “Well, Dena’s son, but he might as well be my nephew. This is Father Dan Malloy. He was our priest growing up. He’s still my priest now.”
“Pleased to meet you, Father,” Rob offered his warm hand and took the other through his thick copper hair.
“Yes,” Dan said, looking at the slight blond boy.
“And this is my friend, Austin,” Rob continued.
“He’s Lance’s younger brother.”
“Lance Bishop? Oh!”
“I know,” the boy said, grinning nervously, “we don’t look anything alike.”
Dan was hot all over, and Rob said, “Me and Austin are headed out with Lance. We’re going to stay at his house tonight. See you guys?”
“Are you serving at Mass tomorrow?”
“Sure thing,” Rob nodded, reaching for his coat, and passing Austin his.
When the boys were gone, Brendan said, “What was all that about?”
“I guess they were excited because it’s the holidays.”
“Not them,” Brendan said. “You?”
Elias looked up to see Lance reaching for his parka and keys.
“I’ll be back in a little bit. I’m dropping Rob and Austin off. And probably talking to Dad.”
Elias did not so much get out of his chair as stretch like a bird to kiss him, and then Lance said, “Do you think Dylan is mad?”
“No more than usual,” Elias smiled and sat down, catching Lance’s hand as the other young man looked at him with a hooked grin.
“I love you.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Elias squeezed his hand and shoved him away.
“You need to not be alone,” Chad said, at last, when Lance had departed.
“Absolutely,” Elias said to Kenny. “You need to get out of your head and be with people who love you.”
“Like us,” Logan threw an arm over Kenny.
The Arab guy was looking at him, smiling, and Elias thought that spending the night with two hot porn stars was not a bad way to open the new year.
“Ruthven’ll be there,” Logan said.
“And how can you not get enough of his dumb ass?” Meredith said. Then, “What? He’s my cousin. And he is an irrepressibly, cheerfully dumb guy. You should totally hang out with him.”
.
Awkward would have been the word Lance used to sum up his whole day. From the moment he had found himself at Sara’s house, looking at a boy who looked more like himself than did his siblings or anyone else, to the moment he had brought him home, and simply said, “I have a son,” the whole day had moved breathlessly. Lance’s parents hardly remembered Sara and they knew nothing about her having an abortion, or at least pretending to. Peter, who had always known about Dylan, simply assumed the girl was an anomaly who passed through his life with no consequence.
“I cannot tell my dad,” Lance told Fenn.
Fenn did not argue.
“We can all stay in the apartment downstairs tonight? Right?”
“Of course you can.”
“Allen hit it off with Barbara and some of the other kids.”
Fenn said, “You know Peter will want to know.”
“Well, when I’m ready.”
“How long do you think you can hide him?” Fenn said.
“How do you feel about Lance and the guys taking our apartment?” Brendan demanded, grinning out of the side of his mouth as Sheridan stepped out of the shower.
“I feel like my mom is a queen for watching Rafe and I feel like my sister in law and Will are royalty for putting us up. Not that this house isn’t huge.”
“Come here,” Brendan called Sheridan.
Sheridan sat down beside him and Brendan murmured, “You smell so good.”
“So,” Sheridan said, as he handed the bottle of lotion to Brendan and turned around so Brendan could rub lotion into his back, “Did your Father Dan help you out?”
“Huh?” Brendan grunted while he rubbed the lotion in his palms to warm it.
“I’ve decided,” Sheridan said, “I’m going out for a bit. I might not come home. I need to have a long talk. I need to spend time with Logan.”
“Uh… I think Logan has company,” Brendan said, rubbing Sheridan’s back.
“I know, Bren. His company is Kenny. Among others. I’m sick of feeling like I stole him from you.”
“Sher!”
“We were all friends once. I mean, I looked up to both of you. I loved both of you.”
“You didn’t steal him.”
“Bren, I had sex with you three times while you were with Kenny.”
“We weren’t talking. We were at a bad place.”
“You were at a place where you’d just gotten off the phone with him and knew you were getting back with him, and I didn’t care. I sucked your dick and went to bed with you. I went to bed with you a lot. And the whole time we did it we knew I was going back to Logan and you were going back to Kenny.”
Brendan had become rigid. His hands rested on Sheridan’s back.
“You know that’s how it happened. And you can’t stop thinking about Kenny and, in a way, neither can I. I need to see him. By myself. Okay.”
Brendan took a deep breath.
“Fine,” he said.
“The two of you…” Sheridan said. “I think the two of you have forfeited your turn to decide how things turn out.”
“Whaddo you…?” Brendan drew back.
“Do you trust me?” Sheridan said.
“I don’t like that question.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“I might end up handling this in a way you don’t like.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“At the moment neither do I. Not exactly. I just… I’m getting an idea.”
“Fine,” Brendan said.
“We’ll be happy again, I promise,” Sheridan said.
“I am happy!” Brendan swore. “You have to understand that I am happy.”
“Well, then happier,” Sheridan said. “And I will be. Things will be exactly how they should be. I promise. But I have to be with Kenny. See him. Make shit right in every way. Okay?”
“Yeah,” Brendan shook his head, feeling a little stupid. “I guess if I’m going to be alright with Kenny, you have to be alright with him too. I never thought about that. I put myself at the center of stuff.”
“Well,” Sheridan said. “for a moment I am going to put myself at the center. Okay?”
Brendan nodded.
“Bren?” Sheridan said.
“Yeah?”
“Before I leave, would you make love to me?”
