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Lifting his ar to his neck and face He needed a shower and a change of clothes, but as far as he knew, Katie and Savannah were still planted in his room

Man, what a weird day He didn’t like seeing those girls so hurt, wished he knew a better way to help than to step aside and build a maze

Katie needed a father In fact, thinking about the falling apart O’Neill house of estrogen, and that hot and hungry look Savannah had in her eyes when she watched hi—to be totally caveman about it—a man was needed by all of them

The door opened and shut and he turned to find Katie standing in the sparkly bright light that signaled the end of the day Her eyes were red-rier

“Hi,” he said, cautiously

“Hi” She scratched at her knee, then her elbow “I’ mean to you” Ah

“Understandable,” he said, “considering who you thought I was”

“I’m sorry about the water balloons”

“Forgiven,” he said with a quick nod “You okay?”

Katie pursed her lips as if she eighing her answer “Sure” But she sighed and plunked her hands on her hips “My dad is a jerk He has a bunch of other kids in Chicago”

“Wow”

“He never told Moet hurt”

“Makes sense, I guess,” he said

Matt sat on the step and pulled off his gloves Katie ju with both feet and sat beside him “It’s his loss, you know,” Matt said and Katie looked at him out of the corner of her eye “I mean, I’m sure those other kids are fine, but they’re not you”

Katie blinked down at her fingers, twisting theame Sadness dripped off her like bitter honey

“I bet,” he said, “they don’t know card tricks Or how to play poker They probably can’t climb trees like you can I’m sure they can’t hide as well as you can”

She smiled, sadly, but didn’t look up

“They don’t make your mom happy like you do,” he said