“It was more or less true,” he said, “except I was really drunk. Bill was walking home and saw me stumbling around like a fool. He grabbed me by the shirt collar and said, ‘Hey, kid, what are doing out here like this.’ He says I told him I was looking for Prince Charming. He asked me how old I was and I said ‘I’m legal, let’s go to your place.’ Instead, he took me to a diner on Castro and fed me a burger and some coffee to sober up. He was so handsome.” He laughed. “I did everything but stick my hand down his pants to get him to take me home with him, but all he wanted to do was talk. He did drive me back to my dorm. As soon as he parked, I grabbed him and kissed him. He just laughed and told me to go to bed and sleep it off. I said I wouldn’t get out of the car without his number, so he gave me his card. I found it the next morning in my pants pocket between runs to the toilet to puke. I called him to thank him for taking care of me and he invited me to lunch. We hung out after that, but he never tried anything with me until I pretty much attacked him. He said I was too young. I told him I was old enough to know what I wanted. I wanted him.” He looked at the paper. “Bill was my first.”

“Your first boyfriend?”

“First anything,” he replied. “I talked a good game but I was a total virgin. For me it was love at first sight. Took him a little longer.”

“When did you move in together?”

“Six months later, maybe? Yeah, it was that summer because I was going to come back here to live with my mom and I didn’t have a car, so it would have been hard to get into the city to see him. Bill said I should move in for the summer and we’d see how we got along. I never left.”

“Even after he hit you?” I asked.

He frowned. “What are you talking about? Bill never touched me that way.”

“Peg Donohue said he gave you a black eye.”

“That was an accident. I told her.”

“She didn’t believe you.”

Before he could respond, his mother returned to the kitchen and joined us at the table. She looked at him and said, “Is everything okay here?”

“I was just asking Nick about Bill,” I said.

“Bill was family,” she said firmly.

Nick nodded. “Yeah, we all loved him.”

I felt a wall descend that ended any further questioning of Nick’s relationship with Bill Ryan.

“Okay,” I said. “Nick, can you tell me what happened the night of the accident?”