“Why’d you do that?” Justin whispers, his forehead wrinkled in aggravation. He is a terrible whisperer and Asher is sure Evona can hear him. He puts his finger to his lips to shush his son, but Justin rolls his eyes.

Later, Asher gets up to use the toilet. He hurries, always rushing whenever Justin is not in his sight. Living like that is exhausting, but also necessary for his peace of mind.

When Asher comes back out, he finds Justin standing by the lattice divider, his eye to one of the holes, spying on Evona. Shady stands at his side, nose pointed up, tail wagging fast.

Asher snaps his fingers to get Justin’s attention, but he doesn’t turn, so Asher sneaks up behind him and eases his hand onto Justin’s shoulder so that he turns to look back.

Come on, Asher mouths, lips half lost to the shadows.

Justin caps his hand over his mouth and points to the lattice, tickled by having this conversation so close to Evona’s back. She is sitting in a rocker not six inches away from them, reading a book. Asher can see through the lattice clearly, the yellow light from her window falling over her shoulders. She is holding a paperback and he wishes he could see the cover.

Asher thinks how Evona must have been able to easily see them, too, with their porch light burning over the card-playing table, when she stood at the divider. Asher pictures her, eyeing them before stepping over to comment on how she and her mother used to play cards, too, a line so telling and inviting that she might as well have announced that she was lonesome and wanted company. And he had simply dismissed her.

NOW! Asher mouths, arching his eyebrows for emphasis. STOP! A widening of his eyes, to let Justin know he is getting angry, although he can’t help being tickled, too.

Justin is laughing at Asher now. He does a little dance to emphasize the fact that they are so close to Evona that it’s ridiculous they aren’t being noticed.

Come on now, Asher mouths, trying to not laugh, but then he straightens himself and gives the look Justin knows by heart: I mean it, Justin.

Justin relents, and trudges back to the card table. Shady follows closely behind, his nose always right at Justin’s heel.

“Your turn to deal,” Asher says, shuffles the cards, then scoots the stack toward Justin.