Kitty nodded. The muscles in her face had relaxed. She stretched out her left leg and rolled her foot, watching the tip of her sneaker make small circles. Johan thought of the girl on the skateboard, the raccoon, so cool and resilient. You’re too dangerous, she’d said to him. And look at her now. He could hold out his hand and she’d hop right in. He could tuck her into his pocket and carry her home.

“Now you.” He smiled and slipped into his shirt. “Tell me something about you that I don’t already know.”

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know.”

“One thing.” He held up his index finger. “Just one.”

Kitty inhaled deeply. Her eyelids were at half-mast, her mouth tilted into a smile somewhere between stoned and sad. “Okay. One thing.” She looked at him for a second, then her eyes flicked away. “I have a six-year-old son.”

“A son?” Johan tried not to sound too surprised. “Really? Back in—”

“Kentucky, yeah.”

“With his dad?”

“No.” Kitty drew one knee onto the recliner, wrapped both arms around it, and hugged it close. “I was eighteen when I had him. Young and stupid. His father was in prison. I lived with my mama. No money, no job. I knew I couldn’t offer him any kind of life, and I wanted him to have everything—or at least a shot at everything. So I gave him up for adoption.”

Johan buttoned his shirt. Water trickled from his hair, down his back.

“He lives now with a beautiful, wealthy, very white family.” Kitty chewed her lower lip and gazed across the pool. “And in every photograph of him I see, he’s smiling, which makes my heart ache, and fills it with joy.”

“Do you have any interaction with him?” Johan asked.

“I relinquished all parental rights,” Kitty replied. “But I chose the family, and they’re very nice, super-liberal. The door is open, you know?”

Johan nodded.

“It has to be on my son’s terms, though. When he’s ready. I just . . .” Kitty trailed off, then breathed out slowly and fanned her eyes. After a moment, she looked at him. Her face was still relaxed, but her smile had returned. “This has been one of the greatest nights of my life, you know that?”

“I know that.”

Kitty angled her head, cocked an eyebrow.

He said, “I promised you higher ground.”

“Sam Jackson, Jennifer Lawrence, Barrett Lorne.” She spread her arms. “You delivered.”

“Not yet.” Johan retrieved his jeans. He dug into one of the pockets and took out a baggie of yellow powder. He held it up and grinned. “You ready for some real star power?”