Free .5 To Have and To Code by Debora Geary Page B

slowly torture you all night.  Either way, you gotta tell us why the hell you’re so damn miserable lately.”
    Silence for a moment.  And then Jesse sighed into his beer.  “Shelley’s changing.”
    Daniel and Truck looked at each other and shut up.  Girl trouble.  That was squarely in Pedro’s territory.
    Their second baseman shook his head and then fielded the ball.  “Changing how?”
    “She picked the movie we went to see last night.  She sang in the shower this morning.”  Jesse’s face had the hurt, puzzled look of a toddler with a squished sand castle.  “And she’s redecorating the living room.”
    Daniel tried to imagine how those were marriage-shaking actions and failed miserably.  “What, is she threatening to throw out your favorite chair or something?”  Jesse was totally tone-deaf—it couldn’t be the singing.
    “I don’t have a favorite chair.”
    “That’s your problem, dude.”  Truck had a favorite chair for every room in his house.
    “It’s not about chairs.”  Pedro lined up his shot and spoke with the decisive knowledge of a guy with five sisters.  “Congratulations.  Sounds like Shelley’s growing up.”
    Jesse looked hammered with a pitch.  “She’s what?”
    Pedro dropped a sweet pocket ball and took a seat on a stool.  “She grew up with pretty overbearing parents, right?”
    Even Daniel could answer that one.  They’d all had run-ins with Jesse’s mother-in-law at the wedding.
    Pedro didn’t wait for answers.  “She was used to being who they wanted her to be.”
    “I’m not like her parents.”  Jesse looked horrified at the thought.
    “No, you’re not.  And you guys have been married for what, three years, right?”  Pedro picked up his beer, voice full of approval.  “She’s finally coming out of her shell, figuring out who Shelley Windgro is when she’s not trying to please somebody else.”
    Jesse blinked.  “So this is a good thing?”  He took a shaky breath.  “I thought maybe… someone else was making her happy.”
    “Idiot.”  Pedro punched his shoulder companionably.  “She’s making herself happy.  You made a marriage where she feels safe enough to do that.  Don’t screw up now.”
    Daniel watched the light come back into Jesse’s eyes.  And handed Pedro the hot wings, pondering.  Shelley and Jesse had seemed awfully happy the way things were.  He’d never thought about what might happen if you found the perfect woman—and then she changed.
    “Your teammate’s coming into her own.”  Pedro smiled at Jesse and looked pointedly down the table.  “Shelley just needed a few extra years to grow up, that’s all.”
    Ouch.  Daniel grabbed a pool cue, bent on revenge.  And wondered if his friend might be right.
    -o0o-
    Ah, home.  Place of total peace, quiet, and neatness.
    Nell sat on the couch and looked around at her most preciously guarded secret.  She’d moved into the small apartment right after college, afraid she was sinking into a black hole of programming code, Doritos, and men who needed keepers.
    And turned her quirky little place into the antithesis of all that.  No computer monitors, no junk food, and very few visitors.  It was her oasis for the person she thought she could be without Realm, troublesome little brothers, and life-incompetent college roommates.
    She surveyed her domain.  Warm yellow walls covered in abstract art prints, a squishy brick-orange couch with pillows and hand-knit throws, a long shelf housing her monstrous CD collection and the treasured books of her childhood.  Princesses, elves, and Jane Austen—the ones she’d kept well hidden from her brothers.
    And that the tooth fairy had always mysteriously known she’d wanted.
    Mom was one of the very few people she let visit her sanctuary—and the only one besides Sammy who hadn’t been shocked at what lay behind the nondescript beige door.  The hidden face of Nell Sullivan.
    Caro hadn’t been at all surprised