“I didn’t keep her anywhere. How many ways do I have to say it? She stayed here for six months. By choice. I would drive up on the weekends and after school if I could come up with an excuse. It was a long-ass drive, so it was hard to stay for too long. I made up a job. Fake friends. Just to mix up my lies. But mostly she was here by herself. That was hard. Knowing she was alone. But she seemed to like it. She read a lot. I think in a way she kind of needed it. Time to think. She was always happy to see me, but I never felt like she was that sad to see me go either. You know?”

Gibson nodded.

“Swear to God, I felt like I spent half my life in a car. I couldn’t keep going to the same grocery store or pharmacy.” Billy laughed at the memory. “I had to drive all over Pennsylvania so people didn’t wonder what a sixteen-year-old was doing buying prenatal vitamins.”

Gibson’s hand went around Billy’s throat and drove him back into the kitchen counter. The lie he’d been waiting on. “What happened to not having sex?”

“What? No, man! We never had sex,” Billy coughed out as Gibson’s hand tightened its grip. “She was pregnant when she got here! Why do you think she ran away?”

That was a thunderbolt that Gibson couldn’t quite wrap his mind around. It was like having all your assumptions unceremoniously dumped out on the road and watching someone back a truck over them. To realize how profoundly wrong everyone had been about Suzanne. He let go of Billy and backed away.

“Sorry,” Gibson said. “I need a drink.”

Billy rubbed his throat but didn’t move. “Probably still beer in the fridge.”

Gibson found a six-pack of Iron City lager in the back. He took two and offered one to Billy. Billy wouldn’t take it. Gibson opened both bottles and held one out to Billy again.

“I’m sorry,” he said again.

Billy’s eyes blazed and then cooled. He took the beer, and the two men stood in the kitchen, drinking in silence.

“Whose was it?”

“She said some boy back home named Tom.”

“What did she tell you about him?”

“Not a lot. Just general stuff. She always changed the subject pretty quick. Honestly, I thought you were the father at first.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. The way she talked about you all the time. I just figured she’d made up the boyfriend thing to protect you.”

“Well, it wasn’t me.”

“I know. I know. You were already locked up. Math didn’t work.”

“Want to know something funny?”

“What?”

“The authorities thought you might be Tom B.”

“I wish,” Billy whispered under his breath.

A funereal silence fell between them.

Finally Gibson asked, “Was Bear . . . was she angry at me?”