“I’m there, and I’m here. I’m trying. I just … Can we talk about something else? Please?”

“Sure.” She lifted a hand and stroked the back of his neck. “You want some breakfast?”

“Matt’s masturbating,” he blurted out. He was immediately glad he’d said it. There was an arrested look on her face, which smoothed out into its own kind of gladness easily enough, because he never would be able to talk about this with Teresa, and Leona knew it. He could live the next ten years with Teresa, and the two of them would never speak of their oldest son having been caught, by his sister, playing with himself in the bathroom of the motel during the hurricane of ‘75. That conversation, benign as it might be, would never take place, and this one already was, and the realization held Roy and Leona together like a pair of handcuffed prisoners in a moment that felt, above all things, sexual.

“He made an announcement?”

“No. But he’s doing it. I mean, he’s fifteen, it makes sense. He’s probably been doing it for years. Only, last night he was doing it in the bathroom of the motel and—stupid him, what was he thinking? We’re like sardines in there, and the bathroom lock is broken, but he doesn’t know that, and of course it’s Karen who walks in on him, and then Teresa starts to panic for no reason. I just blew up. They get like that, and maybe it’s normal behavior, I don’t know anymore, but I turn into this … father.”

“I’m sure you’re not as bad as you think.”

“I am. But the thing is, I don’t know how else to do it. And now I guess I’m supposed to talk to him about it. And what am I supposed to say? He doesn’t need my approval. He doesn’t even want it.”

“Maybe you could give him some pointers.”

She was grinning at him, and he popped his hand lightly against her leg. “I’m serious. I know myself. I’m not any good at this.”

“You just need more confidence.”

“That’s what I’m talking about.”

“You’re a smart man, Roy. You’ll find a way to talk to Matt. And I’m sure you’ve already thought of this, but you’ve got Joe coming up right behind him, and Frankie after that, so you might find yourself in this spot again.”

“What I’m trying to tell you is that I don’t feel like I can do it.”

“You’re just tired right now.”

“It’s not that. You don’t know what it’s like—the whole thing.”

“But you don’t have to talk to him about it today. You can wait.”