Page 100 of Ghost

“So do I,” he said.

“Why didn’t your marriage work?” I asked.

His gaze dropped to the table. “I got married to please my mother.”

“Did you love her?”

He looked up and shook his head. “Not in the way you’re thinking.”

“You didn’t even love her?”

“Not in the sense you’re thinking. I loved her, but I didn’t love her like a wife. We were friends more than anything. We had been since we were kids.”

“Then, after you got divorced, you went in the Marines?”

He smiled. “I was twenty-one. Oldest kid in my platoon. Everyone looked up to me. Best decision I ever made. I guess, in some respects, I married the Corps.”

“Do you think you’ll ever fall in love?”

“I haven’t got time.” He looked around the diner and then met my gaze. “I love you, though. I love Porter, too. Love all the people that work for me.”

“Can I ask you something? Something serious?”

“Sure.”

“Are you sure?”

“Abby, you can ask me anything.”

“Anything?”

He reached for my hand. “Anything.”

“Are you…are you…do you think you might be gay?”

He glanced over each shoulder, and then smiled. “I’m surprised it took you this long to ask. Yes, I am.”

“Holy crap?” I screeched. “Really?”

“No.” He chuckled. “I’m kidding.”

“You’re serious, though? You’re gay?”

“I am.”

I felt happy and sad at the same time. I was happy that he told me the truth, and of the possibility of him finding someone to love, but sad that he’d chosen to hide it from me, and from everyone else as far as I knew.

“Why do you hide it?” I asked.

“I didn’t have a choice in the military,” he said. “It would have ended my career.”

“What about now?”

“It’s a choice I make, I suppose. It’s not as easy as you’d think to reveal something like that. Everyone looks at you differently.”

“Not everyone,” I said. “Just some people.”

“How do you think Porter would react?”