"I had no idea what to do with her," Johnny admitted. "She was so new and so young, and she was looking at me like I had all the answers. I knew she'd be in better hands with you, at least at the very beginning."
"It wasn't your fault," he said, after a long pause. "It wasn't, and I knew that. I just...it hurt. To have whatever time we might have had snatched away so fast. I didn't know how to deal with it. So I guess I just...didn't."
And then she was in his arms again, for the first time in a long time, and not for the first time, he was mentally kicking himself for not trying to reach out to her sooner.