“Mama’s phone got lost in the flood, and when her number started working again, it went to somebody else. I knew the number to the ranch my uncle managed, but their phone lines were down for weeks, and turned out they’d evacuated with the stock anyway. Without an address to write each other . . . it’s a big world, turns out.” His knee started to bounce a little, but he didn’t look away from the sky.

Goose bumps raked across her skin. “It’s so scary that you can just lose somebody.”

He smiled and stroked her arm with the back of one finger. “It was a good thing. Nothing else would have made Mama learn about the internet.”

She laughed. “You give a whole new meaning to ‘glass half-full,’ LJ Delisle.”

“That was the problem—the Delisle. Mama called social services in every state, but somebody spelled my last name wrong in the database, and of course she didn’t have a single picture of me left after the flood. The woman called the president of the United States.” He grinned. “He didn’t answer, I guess, but a White House intern talked her through setting up a MySpace profile, and she found me in five minutes. She was all the way up in New Jersey, and I had landed in Texas. When she flew down to get me, that was the only time in my life I saw her cry.” He glanced over, bumping her side with his knee. “Until today.”

Andra took a deep breath, so many things swirling through her chest that she wasn’t sure how to talk to him about them all. “She says she’s dying, LJ.”

She bit her lip as she remembered what Rose had told her as soon as they were alone.

My son is a good man, but he feels everything too deep, and he can’t stand it if he can’t fix every last problem he sees. You’re the only girl he ever talked about who wanted to take care of him, not the other way around. And I’m so glad God set you down here before He took me.

LJ shrugged twitchily, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his knees. “The doctor says it might feel like she’s dying, but as long as she takes her meds and doesn’t overwork herself, she can live almost as long as anybody else. It depends on what complications come out of the lupus.”

Andra let out a quiet breath. All day, she’d barely been able to look at Rose without thinking of how much it had hurt to lose her mom. She didn’t want that for LJ. “She’s amazing, you know? You’re lucky to have her.”

The corner of his mouth tipped up. “Don’t I know it.”