Shady

"True enough." She nodded.

"Oh... that's nice of him." Sadie dipped her head. "Do you like it here?"

"Oh?"

"...Yeahhh," Sadie agreed reluctantly, nodding. "I... get that vibe as well."

"You're fine," Sadie said gently. "You've had a hard day... and I don't kick people when they're down."

She glanced over at him in concern. "...Are you okay?"

"Thank you." Sadie dipped her head, still feeling awkward. She hoped she hadn't just provoked him to get all pastorly with her. She was trying to help him see that ...

"Thanks." Sadie shrugged, still not looking at him. She felt awkward; she wasn't good at accepting sympathy. "I'm mostly over it at this point... but hurt for a while that ...

“…My best friend was gay,” she said, blushing a little and not looking over at him. “Her parents figured it out and kicked her out then told my parents we ...

Sadie nodded. She let a brief silence pass between them. It felt early on in their conversation to trauma dump, but, well, here he'd already laid a dead wife and ...

"And yet, they didn't," Sadie pointed out.

"Mm... maybe they don't want to?" Sadie suggested. "Maybe you give them something redeemable to cling to. No kid wants to turn their back on their parents; the parent really ...

"How so?"

Sadie shrugged, feeling uncomfortable. "Better than a father who is those things and doesn't care."

"Mm... maybe, I suppose you know them better than I do." She dipped her head. "But I imagine if they made the effort to come to see you from that ...