Chapter 24: After

Orin was sitting on the tailgate of his truck in my parents' driveway at nine the next morning.

He had a paper cup of gas station coffee in each hand, and he held one out to me.

"You look terrible," I said.

"I slept in the truck."

"Did you sleep at all?"

"About an hour."

He tried to smile, and it didn't hold.

"Mom made up my old room, and I couldn't lie in it."

I sat beside him and took the coffee.

It was too sweet, and it tasted like our whole childhood.

"I'm sorry I called you crazy," he said.

"You've said that."

"I'll say it until I'm old."

"You stood in a garage and told me the worst thing I'd ever hear, and I threw you out."

His voice thickened.

"And then you let me choose how to find out."

"You wanted to see Mom see it."

"I wanted somebody to be there. You were."

He put his arm around my shoulders, heavy and warm, and smelled like sawdust.

We sat and watched my father's old truck through the open garage door.

It was still up on blocks.

"Does it hurt?" I asked.

"Yes."

"It'll get better."

"I know." He wiped his nose. "She called me four times. I let it go to voicemail."

"Good."

"Mom says I can have my old room as long as I need it."

"And you'll have me for Sunday dinners."

"With your cold husband?"

"He's learning to eat my mother's pot roast."

Orin laughed, and it was the first real laugh I'd heard from him since Thanksgiving.

When I got to Cade's house that evening, the lamp was on in the hall.

The housekeeper had left a note on the table.

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