He stared at me. "She liked you, boy." The intensity of his voice and eyes made me blink.<br />"Yes," I said.<br />"She did it for you, you know."<br />"What?"<br />"Gave up her self, for a while there. She loved you that much. What an incredibly lucky kid you were."<br />I could not look at him. "I know."<br />He shook his head with a wistful sadness. "No, you don't. You can't know yet. Maybe someday..."<br />I knew he was tempted to say more. Probably to tell me how stupid I was, how cowardly, that I blew the best<br />chance I would ever have. But his smile returned, and his eyes were tender again, and nothing harsher<br />than cherry smoke came out of his mouth.