Second Chance Pass

“Stupid,” he said, interrupting. “I’m mostly stupid around women.”

“Uncertain, maybe. But under the right circumstances…”

“Exactly,” he said, almost relieved. “Under the right circumstances things can happen that you just don’t expect.”

She frowned slightly. “Paul, I understand you went out with women. Why wouldn’t you? You’re a handsome, single man.”

“It’s about me being a little absent since Mattie was born…I have a situation to work out.”

“A situation in Grants Pass?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing a hand across the back of his sweaty neck. He took a breath. “Before I came down here last fall, I went out with a woman a couple of times. Just a casual thing. Nothing serious. But then the whole goddamn world shifted, Matt was killed, Mattie was due, I stayed here with you, we got a lot closer during that time. It might’ve been all about Matt and the baby at first, but that’s irrelevant—we got real close. You and me.”

“As close as brother and sister?” she asked him softly, hopeful about what could be coming.

“A lot closer than that, Vanni. At least in my mind. Then I went back to Grants Pass and not that much had changed there. I had changed, boy had I changed, but things back home were…”

“The same?” she asked. And she thought, there’s a woman in Grants Pass. Someone who had perhaps become important to him. “That woman you went out with a couple of times—when did you meet her?”

“Why?” he asked, perplexed.

“When?”

“God,” he said, rubbing his sweaty palms on his jeans. “I don’t know. About a year ago, I guess.”

“A year ago? Jesus, Paul. Why didn’t you just tell me!”

“Tell you what?”

“There’s a woman! All this time, there’s been a woman!”

“No. No. There was just this woman I saw a couple of times and…”