Free Conditional Offer by Liz Crowe

was born. He and Lillian are both lawyers, but she works in the public defender's office in Louisville and he's some corporate hack."
    "Why is everyone down there? Didn't you guys grow up in Grosse Pointe or someplace?"
    "Yeah, no, we came from Louisville. My dad was head of the big truck plant there. I... we all grew up there for the most part. We moved to Michigan when I was a junior in high school – all my brothers were already out of the house. It sucked."
    "I can imagine."
    "So," he rolled his head around, "I finished high school, swam, had no friends. Then I went to U of M for a year and a half in a three-year math/science fast-track program. I was going to med school, maybe, or just getting a Masters' and PhD in Chemistry. That was my area, I guess. Then, my dad died and I just…lost interest or something." It sounded lame even to his own ears, and he was embarrassed for telling her.
    "Understandable. You were close to him?"
    "Very," he gulped. The time he spent in mourning was still a dark hole in his memory.
    "Sorry." She stayed silent a minute. "You're pretty special, I think. I can see how much you care for Sara. I loved her brother once, too. It's a pretty convoluted crazy story. I'll spare you."
    He frowned. He'd heard the rumors about her and Blake, remembered her comments from the tailgate party, but the guy seemed fairly entrenched with his male partner, Rob. Since Craig heard the warning in her voice, he let it drop. "So, about the dirty talk. Seriously I am hitting the wall here, sweetie. Throw me a bone why don't ya?"
    She laughed, and the sound was like a balm to his aching psyche. Could it be her? He shook his head and focused on her words, kept the car pointed south. If he had to chart his growth as a man, he would start it with him as center of the universe in a large, boisterous household. He'd truly been king of that mountain. His growing up years were predictable, filled with the usual drama of a house full of teenaged boys but insulated by a father who made plenty of money to support them and a mother who was a fierce organizer, managing their many sports schedules and lives with alacrity.
    Move to himself, as a quickly-maturing young man in high school, blatantly seduced as a junior by a teacher and enjoying the hell out of his years as her student. He sighed and ran a hand down his face. Next would be the chaos of college, the newbie sensations barely overcome before the bottom dropped out of his world with his dad's death. This followed by a long road of wrong turns, bad choices and mistakes, with Lindsay as the end of the screw ups. Or so he thought.  But then there was Sara, a seeming continuation of them, and now, Suzanne, something different and much more special. He listened to her talk to him about everything and nothing, and he talked back, all of the way, until he pulled into the drive of his mother's house in Louisville.
    * * *
    He watched his brother get married, lifted his glass in toasts, and sat brooding through the reception. Various nieces and nephews ran around tearing the place up as he got steadily more drunk. He smiled over at an attractive girl, recognizing her from high school and found himself at one point pressing her into a corner, kissing her and imagining, not Sara, but the small, perky redhead with the sad eyes in his arms. After he'd made her gasp through a quick orgasm at the ends of his fingers and she had rubbed him off behind some trees, they sat on the grass, passing a beer bottle back and forth. He hated himself at that moment, more than he ever had. "I'm sorry," he said, meaning it, "I shouldn't have done that. I…I have a…never mind. I think I must be a sex addict."
    The girl laughed and stood, pulling him to his wobbly feet. "It's okay Craig, don't worry, I won't stalk you or anything. Besides," she said, kissing him softly, "you seemed so sad and you were never a sad guy. I thought I'd make you smile."
    "Yeah, you did," he gave her that smile, after