Josh swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, pulling the sheet across his lap. He surveyed the room through a curtain of hair, and his nose wrinkled in an expression of bewilderment. “Jeez, I only did it two days ago.”

“Somehow, I don’t think so.”

“I did.”

“Well, then, you must have worn every article of clothing that you possess over the last two days.”

A reluctant smile of acknowledgement creased Josh’s mouth. “Yeah, you’re right. I must have done.”

Dan bent down and picked up a random pair of trousers from the floor. They seemed far too large for his son’s lean figure, but that’s how he liked them— worn so low on his hips that a vast expanse of knicker elastic was shown above the waistline. A pair of red, cupid-patterned knickers were still inside the trousers. He extracted them and dropped both articles onto the chair occupied by the Nike trainer, then sat down on the bed next to Josh. “So, how was it last night?”

Josh swept a hand through his hair, pulling it away from his face. It was the first time that Dan had seen it uncovered that morning. He studied his son’s features, seeing so many similarities to his own. The full eyebrows, the dark brown eyes, the high-bridged nose. The small gold hoop, however, that adorned the upper part of his left earlobe was unique to Josh.

“It was all right. Good DJ anyway.”

Feeling little inclination to extract further information about his son’s nighttime escapades, Dan turned and picked up a book from the bedside table. It was a copy of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. He flicked through the pages. “Are you reading this?” he asked with an element of surprise.

“Yeah. I think he’s a great writer. He’s brilliantly economic with his words.”

Dan replaced the book on the table and let out a deep sigh. “Joshy, my boy, what are you going to do with your life? You’re too damned intelligent to waste away your time like this.”

Josh turned and stared challengingly at his father. “I don’t know. What are you going to do?”

Dan snorted out a laugh and gave his son’s unruly mop of hair a hard ruffle. “Touché! A very good question.” He pushed himself to his feet. “The truthful answer is that I don’t know, but I’m sure something will turn up.”

Josh nodded. “Yeah, that’s sort of what I was thinking.”

Dan kicked aside the clothing to make a path to the door. “If you take all these down to the kitchen, you can put a load in the washing machine. We’ll get them hung out to dry when I get back.”

“Where are you off to?”