“You’re being used, Mickey. He’s not here because he’s had some great epiphany or because Buck is gone. He’s here because he wants us to help him get off for failing a drug test.”

“Ema?”

It was Troy. She slowly turned her head toward him.

“You may be right,” he said.

“What?”

“I’m not claiming Mickey and I are going to be best friends,” he went on, “but we’re teammates. It’s a bond that’s hard to understand. We both want to win—and we want to win with our teammates by our side.”

“You did it, Troy. We both know you’re guilty.”

“Then the last thing I’d want to do is keep the whole mess front and center, right?” Troy said. “If I was guilty, I’d stay quiet. That’s what my old man wants me to do.”

That quieted Ema for a moment.

“I understand how you feel,” Troy said.

“No, you don’t,” Ema said. “How would you have reacted if I’d sat at your table? You’d probably start mooing or something.”

“That’s a good question,” he said with a nod. “It hurts to hear. But it’s a fair point.”

“So you fail a drug test and now you want us to believe that you’ve seen the light?”

Troy thought about it. “The truth is, I need Mickey’s help. You have no idea how hard that was to admit. Brandon really helped me see that. And, yeah, I know how this sounds, but maybe talking to Mickey, you know, face-to-face and all, maybe that’s what it was. It’s easy to hate at a distance. It’s not so easy to hate face-to-face, like this.”

Ema just frowned.

“But when I was talking to Mickey, I started thinking about everything. My whole life, I guess. Here was some guy I’ve been a total jerk to and he’s willing to help me. I’d have never done that. I’m being honest here. It made me think. It made me wonder about what kind of guy I am and what kind of guy I want to be. I took a long, hard look at myself. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. Things have always come easy to me. Maybe I needed this, I don’t know. Either way, I took a long, hard look in the mirror—and I didn’t like what I saw.”

Troy stood and picked up his tray. “I don’t blame you, Ema. And I don’t expect to make amends in one day. Tiny steps. So if you won’t accept my apologies for all the horrible things I’ve said over the years—and you shouldn’t yet—please accept my apologies for barging in on you guys like this.” He gave me a nod and started on his way. “See you around.”