“Honey,” she said. “He made a bad mistake. But people make mistakes, especially when they’re young. That doesn’t define who they are. From everything I know, your grandfather made a conscious decision not to let his mistake define who he is. He got knocked down and picked himself back up and tried to make something of himself. And by the way? He became someone I know you admire as much as anybody you’ve ever met.”

“Used to admire,” Lucas said.

The light changed. They were just a couple blocks from home.

“Eventually you’re not going to be as angry as you are now,” she said.

“Can I hold you to that?” Lucas said.

Now his mom was making the turn on to their street.

“This whole thing has hurt him enough,” Julia said. “You don’t want to be the one who hurts him more.”

“What about the way I’m hurting?” Lucas said.

“It will get better,” she said.

“I hold you to that, too,” Lucas said to his mom.

He just knew it wasn’t getting better today. He tried to remember a time when he’d ever felt anything like this after winning a game.

But he couldn’t.

TWENTY-THREE

Lucas didn’t call Ryan and ask him to hang out. He actually did do some schoolwork on a Saturday. He wanted to finish his English paper before the deadline. There was enough going on his life right now. He didn’t need one more distraction.

So he stayed at it until it was time for dinner. When it was just him and his mom at the table, he talked about his writing. Not basketball. Not today’s game.

Not Gramps.

For a change.

The next morning, after Lucas’s mom had treated him to a pancake breakfast at the Claremont Diner, Gramps was waiting for them when they got home, sitting on the front porch.

When he stood, Lucas’s mom immediately gave him a hug.

“Sam Winston,” she said, as if lecturing a child. “You know you have a key to this house. You didn’t have to sit out here in the cold.”

“Couldn’t find the darn thing,” he said. “Getting worse and worse finding keys the older I get. And not just keys.”

He looked at both of them then and said, “I won’t be here long. I just need to talk to Lucas.”

They went inside. Lucas’s mom asked Gramps if he wanted some hot chocolate, one of his favorites. He said no thanks. They all took seats in the living room. Lucas and his mom sat next to each other on the couch. Gramps turned around the chair from which he usually watched basketball, so he was facing both of them.