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

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” she began and all eyes turned to her. “Shortly after I met the love-of-my-life”—cheers all around—”I was told by her that she had discovered a long-lost Aunt.” More cheers. “I was also told that said Aunt was living a life in sin but,” and Kerry quelled the booing that ricocheted around the room, “but”—pause—”I was assured in no uncertain terms that she would, some day in the not-too-distant future, be made an honest woman. And I think, and I spoke to the love-of-my-life about this”—a toast to said love, blushing on a side chair—”and we have come to the conclusion that it has been long enough. And seeing as love-of-my-life and I are pretty smart, and we have the LSAT scores to prove it”—waving a piece of paper, an act that elicited a guffaw and a “what color crayons did you two use for that test?” from the doctor in the house—”I put it to you, Betty, when are you going to make an honest woman of my Aunt Mary?”


Chapter 40