She glances out the window attentively andthen leans on the counter, “Let me ask you something.”
“Sure.”
“What’s a nice girl like you doing with a boylike Ryan?”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“What’s wrong with Ryan?”
“Nothing, except for the fact he’s a boy withno future who takes his clothes off for a living.”
“That’s a highly negative opinion to haveabout your son.”
“It’s not an opinion, it's reality,” shestares past me bleakly and I know she’s looking at the two ofthem.
“I’m not the one who put him in a position tohave no future,” I dispute.
She glares at me coldly.
Okay, that was a low blow.
“Maybe not, but what do you think you’regoing to do? Save him?”
“Ryan doesn’t need saving,” I assert.
She grunts and looks past me again, this timedespairingly, like those two boys are her only lifeline and withoutthem she’d disappear.
“Ryan needs so much more than you will everknow.”
“Then please enlighten me.” I glance back andcatch Sean pulling Ryan into a hug.
“He wants to marry you,” she saysbluntly.
“Yes, I know,” I turn and look at her.
“And what’s going to happen when he asks andyou say no?”
“Who says I’m going to say no?”
“Sweetheart,” she says condescendingly, “thepauper doesn’t end up with the princess, he ends up on hisass.”
Which is exactly what Sean told me atCulture, and I realize the prejudice against me runs much deeperthan I could have ever imagined. It stings; especially because Iwould never do anything to hurt Ryan, but neither Sean nor Mrs.Pierce seem willing to believe that.
“Look,” I say harshly, “it doesn’t matter tome where Ryan comes from, it only matters where he’s going.”
Which is straight to Las Vegas to be aheadlining act. Oy!
“I hope he doesn’t make you eat those words,”she says ominously, then plasters on a fake smile as Ryan sits downnext to me.
“Everything okay?” I ask.
Ryan sighs, “Yeah, as much as it can be.”
“Where’s Sean?” Mrs. Pierce asksconcerned.
“He borrowed my car. To go to theclinic.”