Robert has some Percocet left over from a back injury last year, so we give that to Ethan and I get him more ice for his nose and hold his hand. When he falls asleep, we go down to the kitchen and pull together something for him to eat. Scrambled eggs, yogurt, and canned peaches, because it will be easy on his jaw. We wake him up. He looks at us and chews when we tell him to, but he’s not really there. I’m sure it’s easier not to be.

“I wish you’d met Rodney,” Robert says while we’re cleaning up the breakfast dishes. He’s wiping the juice tumblers with a bright blue sponge that squeaks against the glass. “Ethan and Rodney were like the romance you always dreamed you could have, you know?” He stacks the glasses gently in the drying rack. “They were so happy. It made everyone around them feel better to know there was love like that in the world.” When he scrubs the frying pan, dried yellow flakes of egg fall into the sink like leaves.

“Why did they break up?” I ask, swigging the rest of my coffee, handing my mug to Robert to wash.

He puts the mug down and it clanks against the porcelain sink. “I don’t know why I thought you’d know about that.”

“I just got here. I’m basically a stranger.”

“This,” Robert says, waving his hand toward the living room, where the blood on the rug will never come out all the way, “this makes us not strangers.”

He picks up the mug and wipes it down with the soapy sponge. I’m convinced he’s not going to tell me what happened, and then he says, “Rodney died in a car accident about four years ago.”

I think about how Ethan’s eyes look older than the rest of him, and the weary way he carries himself to bed at the end of the day.

“They were going to adopt a kid,” Robert says. His eyes are red. He doesn’t try to hide it. “This little girl from Mexico. She was beautiful. They got pictures in the mail. They were planning their trip to pick her up. And then, Rodney was on his way home from work. A tractor-trailer…”

I cover my mouth with my palm. Robert rests the mug in the sink and wipes his eyes with the back of his hand.