Part of him was tempted to argue that was easy for her to say seeing as she'd never been to Clover, but perspective was a funny thing. He'd hated it there. He'd hated the small minds and the small lives, but as much resentment as he'd carried through out the years, there was no denying how safe it had been. People rarely wanted for much, and usually what they had wanted for had been extravagant. Even his own dreams of university and a big career, which had seemed huge but reasonable, would have been impossible and luxurious for someone like her.

Short of a low budget movie and mall pizza, he just didn't know what else he could offer to show her how normal of a life she now had a chance at.

"He sounds like a good dad." He agreed, and maybe some of the things she mentioned sounded odd, but the love as blatant. "It must be crazy, getting to see him after so long. I only saw my mom less than six months ago, but I don't know what I'd do if she was here." If he had to guess it would have been some torn combination of hugging her until neither of them could breathe and shoving her into a dark hole and hiding her. But the idea of ever seeing her, or his dad or grandmother or even Malerie again seemed utterly impossible.