Suzanne Nelson was raised just outside of San Francisco. A Stanford grad and varsity runner, she heads to New York City for law school. She is gay, but has come out to no one. In New York she meets Kerry Neally, a New Yorker and fellow student. Who is straight. First in a study group and then as a pair, they find themselves become attached to one another. And have to work out that Kerry thinks she's straight. Eileen is Kerry's mother. She is a widow, and meeting Suzanne helps her leave the shell into which she placed herself after her husband died. And she comes to the attention of two men. One a widower. The other divorced. And love intevenes for her choice. With Suzanne settled into her New York life, she turns her back on her parents, who turned their backs on Suzanne's aunt Mary, a gay woman disowned by her parents and brother decades before. She, too, lives in New York and she and Eileen attempt to get Suzanne's parents to understand their daughter. Kate Nelson comes to New York to reason with her daughter. As eventually does William, her father. The story is about how the members of what becomes a large New York family deal with themselves, each other, and love.

The Neallys

“I’m pretty sure she’ll be really, really happy. She is really very sweet and loves you both and I can’t see her doing anything else. But people can surprise you, so just be there for Kerry no matter how it goes.”


I told Kerry what Aunt Mary said and we, quietly, drove to her house.


My Mom jumped up from the sofa, putting The Sunday Times section she was reading and the cup she was holding on the coffee table when she saw us enter. When she understood that I was with Suzanne, who she had not seen since Christmas, and that we held one another’s hands, she rushed over, practically upsetting a chair, and with surely one of the largest smiles I ever saw, perhaps larger than ever directed towards me, she grabbed my Suze and hugged her and starting crying.


I realized that all my worries about what I needed to say to her were of no import; I did not need to say anything.


Chapter 23