Right now I’m swiveling on this bar stool, pouring myself a double shot of scotch, nibbling on my cake, and watching the last of the folks leave. Janelle is at the front door playing hostess, thank God. The kids is still pretending like they know each other, but as soon as our eyes locked, they got that look of mourning in theirs even though they was horsing around. Dingus is standing over by the garage door talking to his daddy. Nathan look the same. Something good done happened to him, ’cause that’s a Armani suit or my name ain’t Charlotte. Dingus is taller than he is, and look just like him. How could he not be a daddy to this boy all this time? When I hear a voice I know belong to my sister say, “And what exactly are you doing here, Nathan?” I swirl this stool all the way around to be nosy. They ain’t paying no attention to me.

“Dag, Ma. He came to offer his condolences like everybody else.”

“It’s true, Paris. I came to show my respect. And I come in peace. Truly, I do.” He bends over to give her a hug and her body twist and lock up like a piece a rope.

“Who told you about Mama?”

“I did,” Dingus says.

“I cannot believe that after all these years of not hearing from you that you would have the nerve to show up at my mother’s funeral.”

Now I turn my back away from ’em and take my fork and cut another little slice off my Sock-It-to-Me cake. I guess she must be walking away, ’cause then Nathan say, “Wait a minute.”

“What?” Paris say, real nasty.

“Will I get a chance to spend some time with you and Dingus while I’m here?”

“With me and Dingus? You can spend as much time with Dingus as you want to in the next twenty-four hours, because that’s when we’re going home.”

“Well, the good news is I’m flying out to San Francisco for a week when I leave here to look for office space.”

I gotta see this, so I turn around again. She done stopped dead in her tracks and then she turns around to look him in the face. This is getting good.

“Things have worked out well for me, Paris. I miss the Bay Area, and quite a few of my athletes are from California, so I thought this would be an opportune time to come back home to recruit and practice.”

“Home?”

“Look, Paris. No need to jump up and down with joy right now, and under the circumstances I can see why you wouldn’t be too keen to hear my good news, but there are a lot of things about me that have changed. For starters: I’ve grown up. My practice is booming. I’m an inch from making seven figures. I’ve even done the therapy thing. I’m a new man. A different man, but the same man you fell in love with.”