"Yeah, sure," Jake said, finding that hard to believe. He rubbed his forehead and then sighed. "Look, I appreciate that but it's hard to really see that for myself right now. This shouldn't have happened but did because I'm an idiot."

A blind, unobservant, untrained idiot. He'd thought he'd been doing well, stepping out from his father's shadow when all he'd been doing was biding his time, waiting till he was comfortable to really shake things up in a completely negative way.

"But I don't want you to worry about me," he told her, shaking his head. "I'll be fine. I'll figure something out."