“In this day and age, I don’t think that would be a problem. When we were kids, maybe, but not now.”
Moving away, Marshall sat on the stool beside his work table, gazing at Neil without saying a word.
Neil began to get nervous under the intensity of his stare. “What?” he asked finally.
“I’m trying to figure you out.”
“Meaning?”
“You’re a middle-aged, straight guy who was probably—and this is just presumption—raised in a nice middle-class community where being gay was looked on as something strange and fairly intolerable. Then you got married after what? High-school or college?”
“I was twenty-six, actually, with a new wife I thought I loved and a new business I knew I did.”
“So between college and then you learned the ropes during the day so you could start your business and played h
