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Dad was a CPA and the only accountant in town, and Mo as she’d been running our house—forty years

“Ti out her cell phone and hitting the green button Mom and Dad had refused to let me buy them a new house, or even pay this one off, but they had let ned with my first NHL team It was the least I could do to repay theames over an hour away in Des Moines “Get in here and eat You’re just getting in the way out there”

She hung up without another word

I’d also hired a few farmhands for Dad, as certain that his i to do with his talent to grow shit It didn’t But I didn’t tell him that, either

My parents had so I had rarely seen and always marveled at—happiness

Dad ca his baseball cap on the hook near the kitchen door “It’s a hot one out there Sent the o Hey, it’s about time you were up,” he teased me as he washed his hands

A hundred degrees in Ioasn’t the sa here without the ocean breeze

“I went for a run at five a Mom carry the sandwiches to the table where I’d already put the apple juice

I fucking loved this table It was dinged up and scarred, burned in places from the numerous school projects London and I had made on its uneven surface, but it was honer had moved into my Charleston house

“Yeah, yeah” He grinned, and I got a glimpse of what I’d look like in another thirty years We had the sah I just happened to have a few more tattoos

Fine, a lot more tattoos

We took our seats and started our lunch Mo up at the clock every minute or so

“What has you stressed out?” I asked her, devouring the last ofthe season, but Moical, and I sure as fuck wasn’tout I’d just have to run a little farther tomorrow to make sure I didn’t take an extra ten pounds back to Charleston