Of what had he to fear? Dean laid in the dark, body still, mind painfully active. If she was an expert in nothing else, Candice knew how to ask awkward questions. He cast his thoughts to the past, seeking answers in his early behaviour. A pattern might emerge. Clarification of how he came to this point. Even so, the much younger and inexperienced man he’d been didn’t exist these days. Wasn’t there something going around about writing to one’s younger self? Didn’t matter what he had to say, his adolescent counterpart would only laugh. The ghost of his youth had nothing to impart and made it more difficult to make sense of earlier decisions. Inexperience offered many explanations none of them reliable. The urge to deny came on strongest but, with a clenched fist, nails digging into his palms
