“She hates me,” Justin said later, when the kids were asleep in Del’s spare room. They hadn’t discussed Justin and the kids staying over, not exactly, but Justin had found he just didn’t want to leave right now, and Del had somehow already known.
Del turned the dishwasher on. “She’s six, Justin, and she’s hurt and angry and confused. You really think she’d spend that much energy on hating you if you didn’t matter to her? She’s terrified of loving you because she’s terrified of losing you. She just can’t admit it. Not even to herself, probably.”
Justin swallowed around the knot in his throat. “I wish I could believe that.”
He was still off-kilter from the whole town saying he was gay—if it had reached the elementary school playground bullies, then it had to be from their parents gossipin
