He forgot to gather the travel sized shampoo, conditioner, but he doesn’t want to go back out there, potentially run into someone else. He recognises Jake’s brand in the shower, crowded amongst a half dozen other bottles, and decides to use that. David wants to stay in the shower longer than he does, but it starts going cold when he’s washing his hair, and even when he turns the hot water higher, it’s barely endurable. That’s not something he’s experienced in a long time, between apartment buildings and hotels. Maybe that’s why Jake was back so quickly. Maybe it wasn’t about David at all. Or, if it was, it was just Jake trying to save David some hot water.

David shuts the water off when it goes from cool to cold, towels off and hastily dresses, shirt clinging damply to his back, decides to fix his hair in Jake’s room so he isn’t preventing anyone from using the bathroom. He doesn’t know how five people can share one bathroom.

His coffee is lukewarm now, still tastes off, and he leaves it in Jake’s room when he goes downstairs, finding Jake and Natalie in the kitchen, along with the rest of the Lourdes. It’s crowded in there with so many people, and they all stop talking, like they had been talking about him. David’s familiar with that feeling.

“Good morning, David,” Mr. Lourdes says after a pause. “Sleep well?”

“Yes, thank you,” David says.

Breakfast is cereal for everyone but David and Jake, and David has a feeling Jake would be eating cereal too if David wasn’t there. It’s quieter than dinner, at least, whatever talk there is muted and morning soft.

“I’m going to show David around the neighbourhood,” Jake says during breakfast, and David would be annoyed that Jake didn’t check with him first, but he’s too grateful to be leaving the too crowded house to mind.

There isn’t much to see of the neighbourhood, really. Jake drives past his elementary school, points out the high school his sisters graduated from, that he went to before he moved up to London for Juniors, shows David all the places he’d hang out as a kid, parks crowded with children out of school, a strip mall, waves wildly at the Detroit Zoo, even though he knows David doesn’t care for them.

They get lunch at a chain restaurant David’s seen in almost every state and province he’s played in. David keeps a wary eye out to see if anyone recognises either of them. It’s mostly older couples and families with young children at that time of day, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t hockey fans, and it makes David and Jake stand out even more.