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 miss her so much. And I thought about her last night and I talked to Kerry and Suzanne about her when we got back to the inn and I had more wine than I should have—we all did—and I told them how much I miss her and that she was my best friend and I never told anyone that and I realized that I never spoke to you about that and it wasn’t right or fair that I hadn’t so I had to come here to tell you so you would know and so I would know that you missed her too.”


At some point in this stream, his hands gripped my arms lightly and when I was done I realized that I had not told him how much I love him but I could not tell him because I used up all of my words and could only sob as he pulled me closer and then his arms encircled me.


Chapter 98