"Did you ever think about anyone else besides Mom?"
Reed looked at the door.
Then at the other door.
Then at the window, as though Fern might also be at the window.
His father was going into mental overdrive, Ren could see it happening in real time, the look of someone who had never faced this particular category of problem and was trying to find solid ground to stand on.
Reed had found Fern by the luck of proximity and shared circumstances, the two of them growing up close enough in the poorest part of the district that the options had been what they were. They were both reasonably good-looking, which had helped, and being poor had never left room for the kind of thinking that involved maintaining more than one household, not when your own wife was helping cover expenses and you were barely managing that.
"No… Honestly we were to focused on having someone like you that all our young years were gone when we realized."
