“Well, she kept you. She raised you.”
“And she loved me as best she could. I know I try to do the best I can when it comes to love, but sometimes…Well, my attitude when we first met—second met, the gate, the bulldozer—that kind of shows how I fail at it.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “I think you’re guarded for sure, but when you open up and feel safe, I think you…”
A red light gave Ezra opportunity to turn and look at me. “You think I what?” A crumb from a muffin I’d just polished off caught his eye. It had settled on the corner of my mouth, apparently, and he picked it off and put it in the ashtray.
“I think affection and caring comes naturally to all of us if we let it,” I said.
“Oh.”
“You’re no exception, Ezra.”
That was all I said. That was all we said, until we started m
