WHEN THEY’RE GETTING ready to leave to go check in at their hotel, Delilah hugs Alex — getting her arms as best she can around him and Claudia both — and calls him Jay.
“I’m Alex,” he says petulantly. He sounds so very young.
Alex doesn’t talk at all during the fifteen-minute drive to the Best Western in Martinsville, the next town over. Paragon, population six hundred, doesn’t even have a motel. Paul gives him quiet. Sure, he wants Alex to feel as easy as he can, but he also knows he’s not going to get anything out of his husband until the man decides to talk.
Which takes far less time than he expects. Alex changes Claudia’s diaper, makes sure all cords and outlets are out of her reach, and puts her on the floor to play with a set of stacking cups. Then he digs out the beer they bought
