(Amelia)
I picked the park because it was public and easy to leave.
That was the deal I made with myself. A public place, an hour, no more. If it went badly I could take my son home and think again. I didn't tell Ethan who Nathaniel was. I wasn't ready for that talk, and neither was he. I told him a friend of Mommy's was coming to say hello, which was true enough. Ethan took it the way he took most things, with a nod and a question about whether the friend liked dinosaurs.
"I don't know," I said. "You can ask him."
Nathaniel was early. I saw him across the grass, standing by the benches, his hands in his pockets. He looked more nervous than I'd ever seen him. More nervous than the boardroom, the gala, any of it.
Good, I thought, and felt a little bad for thinking it.
Ethan ran ahead
