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I poured my glass and thought about how to answer Sue’s question.

“Girl! Talk to me. You’re killing me here! Say something.”

I took a large sip. Okay, it was a gulp.

“It went well.”

“It went well. Sure it did,” Sue said sarcastically. “That’s the reason you’re chugging wine at four o’clock in the afternoon. Don’t ask me how I know. I heard that gulp. Now talk to me. What’s the problem?”

I took another gulp of the golden goodness. It helped calm my nerves.

“I like him. That’s the problem. Okay? I like him. But he seemed too nice. Too kind. Even when he was nervous because he wanted information about his brother, his nervousness was too perfect. It wasn’t right. All of this was after he volunteered to help some stroke victim he’d never met. Sue, I really like Kai, but after Denny, I just can’t trust my own opinion. And I sure as hell can’t trust some guy who seems too perfect. That got me into trouble the first time around. Denny was just luring me in for the kill.”

After all that word vomit, I picked up my glass and sucked down the rest of the wine.

“Have you finished your glass?” Sue asked gently.

“Yes.” I gave the phone a dirty look. “And I’m thinking about pouring another one.”

“Before you do, can we have a calm, back and forth conversation?”

“How long?”

“Less than five minutes, I promise.”

I started the timer on my phone. “The clock has started.”

“I hate it when you do that,” Sue complained.

“You’re wasting your time.”

“Fine. Denny spent four months being perfect before he asked you to move in with him. He never wanted to meet any of your friends. He wanted to isolate you from everyone. He was an antisocial asshole. Is that Kai?”

“It was one date. How would I know?”

“Somebody must have talked him into helping this man who had a stroke,” Sue prompted.

“We were surrounded by people from the town. There was Lettie the waitress at the diner, then Harvey. I told you about him, I think. He owns the local construction company. I met him and his wife at Lettie’s potluck. That man can eat. Then there was the town doctor, who everybody calls Doc.”

Sue laughed.

“So was Kai there amongst everyone?”

“Yeah.”

“Did he seem fidgety?”

I thought about it. “He didn’t seem to. He really wasn’t fidgeting when it was just me and him and Lettie. He was charming and funny. He was really nice to Little Grandma, too.”

“Ohh,” Sue sighed. “You’ve told me about her. I think I’m going to bring Steve and Angie out for a visit just so I can meet Little Grandma.”

“You better be coming to visit me.”

“And Chaos.”

I laughed. “And Chaos.”

“So Kai is actually good with people. That’s not the same as Denny.”