She wasn't sure what he was doing or why he was moving towards her, and then he sat next to her and put his arm around her. Just around her shoulders, keeping his hand well away from her chest. She'd had a few men put their arms around her and just "happen" to cop a feel while doing it.

Oh. Well, then. She relaxed into him, feeling how warm he was, how solid. And if he wanted proof that she trusted him, he probably had it. At the same time, she was still ready for him to use her trust against her. That's how it had always been. She never trusted anyone completely. She never could.

"I haven't seen my mother for more than ten years," she said, almost to herself. He was right about why she was closed-off, or at least that her early life had influenced it. Section had made it worse. Nothing in her life had made her more open. Magical cities that had stones to show the future certainly hadn't.

"I never went back after she kicked me out. She never wanted me to go back. Too interested in the booze to be interested in her kid. But one of the futures I saw, I was in a hospital bed, looking like a vegetable with tubes and wires and everything. She was kissing me on the forehead. Probably kissing me goodbye before they pulled the plug."