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Christy squeezed his aret it I’ll walk her up”

Jason’s cell buzzed in his pocket, his childhood phone nunizable “Thanks, Christy I have to…”

She waved him off, and he took the stairs two at a ti o back to bed, and not have to think about anything at all

The phone buzzed again in his hand, and he almost dropped it Hisa o unanswered as well Could pretend that nothing had changed and go years again without acknowledging his fa normal

Taking a deep breath, Jason swiped the screen, jue “Hello?”

He pulled up to a red light, asking hi to dinner at his parents’ house But histhey were paying for Maggie to see a therapist, dinner was a reasonable request

The radio played a noisy pop hit, and he turned down the voluie in the back seat “How do you feel about tonight?”

In the rearview, Maggie shrugged “Fine”

She’d avoided him most of the day and he’d let her, but it was time to deal with it “Come on, that’s not a real answer”

She rolled her eyes, but after a few ht they hated us”

“Maggie We talked about this They don’t hate us at all I thought you understood what happened when you were a baby? They just thought you’d be better off if they raised you”

“Because they’re stupid”

“Hey! No naht they knew best, and they were stubborn”

“They rong”

“Yes They were, and they realize that now” He wanted to believe them—wanted so badly to trust them, but he wasn’t sure he could Not coe involved to try and take his baby away

But he’d try

For the first tier, he drove the streets of his old neighborhood Some houses looked the sa at the signs The tennis court that had been weirdly squeezed in the front of Carson Whitone, replaced by a stretch of lush lawn and sculpted flowerbeds

The e when he was a kid He and Tianed on it, and now it looked ridiculously tiny Had it always been so small?