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issue? That your daughter tried to live the life she wants

because she’s an adult who is allowed to have independent

thought and her own aspirations? She might not have gone

about it the right way, but you making her feel ashamed of her

sexuality, in the past and right now, telling her that you need to

do damage control, telling her that by kissing another woman

she’s tearing you down and sabotaging everything you and

your wife have worked for, that’s just wrong. It’s so wrong and

it’s totally ridiculous. As a grown man, as a father, you should

know better. Or maybe this really is the man who’s going to be

a senator for the great and wonderful state of Louisiana where

gay marriage is perfectly legal and where loving another

person of the same sex should never be something to be

ashamed of.”

The line went dead with a hard click.

The only sound in the car was Emily’s raspy breathing.

“Shit,” she muttered when the silence got too heavy to bear.

“Shit, shit, shit.”

“Sorry.” Dani couldn’t bring herself to mean it. “I’m sorry I

made your dad angrier by telling him the truth,” she corrected.

“I should have used more tact, but when I heard that, I just lost

it.”

Dani had seldom gone to the beach as a kid for obvious

reasons. Foster kids didn’t get taken to the beach, and they

didn’t do family outings either. At least, she hadn’t. Not a

single one of the many foster parents she’d had would have

ever thought of it. To them, Dani was just another mouth to

feed, another set of hands to help with the other kids or do

chores, and a paycheck at the end of it all.

Even though their outing had ended the way it did, Dani had