That evening, the men sat on the couch, the dogs between them, a fire in the corner fireplace. Jesse was thoroughly enjoying himself. As they sipped their glasses of wine, watching the evening game on TV, he couldn’t imagine being more content. The only negative was that Nick seemed to be a bit distracted.
At dinner in one of the Main Street restaurants, on two occasions Nick had not heard Jesse’s comments. When Jesse had asked if anything was wrong, Nick seemed to fumble with his response. Jesse tried not to read too much into this. Now they were back at home, he seemed more in tune with the conversation.
Jesse’s cell rang. He retrieved it from his pocket.
“Hi, Denny,” Jesse said, looking across the dozing dogs at Nick with a smile.
Nick seemed to take a deep breath.
“Uh…hi, babe,” D
