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“I just wondered—never mind that.” She laughed. “I started to ask what you two did talk about, but I reckon you young people aren’t too worried about conversation.”

Unsure what to say she fell back on “Um.”

Grandma K laughed again. “Don’t mind me, Damaris. I’m just happy you two are finally together.”

Luckily, she went on to talk of other things, but Damaris couldn’t stop thinking about how little she knew about Nate’s family and his past. She decided she was going to change that.

It took a while to get Grandma K settled with her cousin Tillie, but by lunchtime they waved goodbye and drove off in the car Nate had rented. “Was your grandmother wild when she was young?”

“She’s never come right out and said it, but I suspect she was. Why?”

“Some of the things she said made me wonder. Like the way she said ‘don’t do anything I wouldn’t do’ and she and Tillie cracked up.”

“People usually do laugh when they say that.”

“I guess. That reminds me, we were talking about your family and I admitted I didn’t know a lot. I realized you and I have never talked much about your family—well, other than Grandma K. I felt like a jerk. You know all about my family.”

“They live in Whiskey River and you live on the ranch with a good portion of them. It would be weird if I didn’t know them.”

“Still, I should know more. Tell me about your family. What do your mom and dad do? I know what Kali and Liam do.”

“My mother’s a doctor and my dad is in real estate.”

“Is your dad commercial or residential?”

“Commercial.”

“None of you wanted to go into real estate?”

“Nope.”

Good God, it was like pulling teeth to get him to talk. But she persevered. “What kind of doctor is your mom?”

“She’s an OB/GYN.”

“But none of you kids wanted to go into medicine?”

A shadow crossed his face and for a moment he looked sad. She wondered why, but before she could ask Nate changed the subject.

“Can’t we talk about something more interesting? Like what we’re going to do this afternoon?”

“Can we go to Coronado Island? I want to see that hotel. The Hotel del Coronado, I think it’s called.”

“Sure. Do you want to drive or take the ferry? We can look around until we want to check in at the hotel. We have reservations for a sunset tour of San Diego harbor late this afternoon.”

“The ferry sounds fun. But I still want to hear about your family.”

*

A little exasperated, Nate looked at Damaris. “There’s nothing particularly interesting about my family.” Nothing he wanted to talk about, anyway. “Why do you want to talk about them?”

“Because it dawned on me, I know almost nothing about them. If we were really involved, I think I would.”

There was only one thing ‘interesting’ about his family and he never talked about it to outsiders. And hardly ever to other family members. It hurt too much. But Damaris was right. He’d have told her if they were truly involved. Maybe. Grandma wouldn’t bring it up, so why open that wound?

Damaris put her hand on his arm and squeezed gently. “I’m sorry. Obviously there’s something you don’t want to talk about. Just forget I said anything.”

He tried but he wasn’t entirely successful.