I slice us both a piece and top it with a little butter and honey. I hand him his wrapped in a paper towel, and he eats it leaning against the counter. He looks a lot younger today in his jeans and cowboy boots. Maybe he’s just more rested. I haven’t heard him up and about in the middle of the night in a while. And the bruise on his nose is mostly gone now.

Mema has told me more than once how they met. He was nineteen and she was fifteen, and he rode up to her on a horse. Like, he literally rode up to her on a black stallion and said, “Would you do me the honor of a date?”

And it worked.

He did rodeos back then, and she says he looked like “God or the devil” when he rode up to her dressed all in black from head to toe with his red hair shining.

He took her to a fine “eye-talian” dinner, as he would say. I bet they split spaghetti like in Lady and the Tramp. They got married when she turned eighteen, and that was that.

I watch him now as he closes his eyes and chews slowly.

“Baby girl, this might be the best thing you have ever made. We’re gonna have to hide this from the women, or there’ll be none left by suppertime.”

He winks and wanders out again. It’s stuff like this that makes me glad we’re here, even if Mom has to drive me to school and carry me into the bath and the squirrels will not shut up at six o’clock in the morning.

“You are coming to this game whether you want to or not.”

“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do less than watch a bunch of dudes run up and down the court while I sit in my chair at the end of the stands like a grandma.”

I am lying on Coralee’s frilly white daybed and trying to stretch my toes. It’s something Hutch has got me doing to help with the aches that keep me up at night. He might be the best PT I’ve ever had, but I’m not telling Mom or she’ll stop feeling sorry for me. Then I’d have to wave good-bye to the extra ten minutes’ sleep in the morning and half hour of screen time at night.

“Nope.” Coralee throws a stuffed unicorn at me. “You do not get to pull the cripple card. I am singing the national anthem in front of God and the entire middle school, and I want my best friend there to witness.”