“Dane, why don’t you give Shane a tour of the house? I’ll show Jenny around once we get the food started!” Alice called. I shook my head to try to clear it a little bit and turned to look at Shane. She looked at my expression, grinned briefly, and then looked around me in the general direction of the kitchen.

“Is she high?” she asked.

I flung my hands up in exasperation. “I wish I knew.”

“Trouble in paradise already, huh?” she asked, touching my shoulder briefly.

“I don’t know what’s going on. She won’t talk to me about whatever it is, so I have no idea what to do,” I replied in a whisper.

“Let her deal with it. She’ll come to you when she’s ready, Dane.”

“I know that. I just wish I knew what the hell was going on, that’s all. I mean, isn’t she supposed to be able to talk to me?”

“Of course she can talk to you. That doesn’t mean she has to immediately every time something’s bugging her. That’s really codependent…she’s trying to get over that. Just give her some time. She tells you everything, she’ll tell you this. Just give her some time,” Shane said, trying to comfort me. It helped a little, I guess, but talking to Shane always did.

“You wanna see the house?” I asked her, trying to calm down from the really intense wave of emotions I’d just had.

She just smiled and turned away so I’d have a minute to compose myself. “Sure.” She started down the hallway in front of me, walking slowly to wait but not looking at me. I put my hand on her shoulder in appreciation and moved up so I could walk beside her.

About half an hour later, after Shane had seen every room and watched my rather giddy demonstration of my new gym equipment with an amused expression, we headed back to the kitchen to find Jenny and Alice.

They were talking, although they stopped when they saw us. Jenny gave Shane a hug, and Alice looked like she wanted to do the same to me, but she held back. This bothered me, but I tried not to make my concern obvious as we went into the living room, the four of us making small talk as we waited for everybody else to get there.