Ray cups his hands around his mouth and howls again, screaming our daughter’s name as she finally leaves the bench and runs onto the field. I yell too, though not as loud as my husband. When the ball is in play, I say to Raymond, “Please don’t get sucked into Bobby’s problems.”

He shrugs and says, “You know I can’t help it.”

Isn’t that the truth. “You’ve got your own shit to deal with. You don’t need his.”

Ray puffs out his chest. “What shit do I have?”

“Well, for one thing: her tuition,” I say, nodding toward Bianca, who is ducking from the ball instead of hitting it. “Something tells me a field hockey scholarship isn’t in the cards.”

Ray winces—out of empathy, not disapproval, since we honestly don’t care what she does or how good she is, as long as she’s getting something out of it. Ray folds his arms and says, “Don’t you worry about that. There’s a storm system rolling in.”

“You better pray it’s a hurricane.”

“Hey, now. Let’s not spoil the children.” He smirks like the adorable, cocky bastard he is.

“Are you kidding? Let’s spoil them rotten.”

Bianca intercepts a pass and the crowd goes wild—me and Ray in hysterics, obviously, but everyone else, too, even the tight-ass in front of us, who pumps her fists in the air—and Bianca is so surprised that she freezes, then looks up at us, not smiling exactly, but checking to make sure we’re watching, which is just enough of a distraction for the other team to steal the ball away again, and everyone in the bleachers moans and sits back down—everyone except for Raymond, who keeps whooping at full voice, and maybe I’m imagining things, but it sure looks like Bianca’s smiling now.

“Yeah!” Raymond screams one last time. He sits down and squeezes my knee. “Well, how about that?” Takes a minute for his energy to settle, but once it does, he says, “Don’t worry. Bobby will be fine.”

“I guess,” I say, thinking to myself how it’s not Bobby I’m worried about.

9.

Here’s what’s going to happen: I’ll pull Nick aside tonight and tell him to pack it up and move on out. Whether or not I’m reading him or the situation correctly is irrelevant, because for all of Raymond’s shortcomings—and he has plenty—the man made an excellent point: There’s no sense in waiting for disaster. Run defense before the damage is done.