Chapter 6

“Can you…” Another sigh—here it comes. “Maybe you can come up here for a few days, if possible? I know it’s sudden but she just went into the hospital this morning.”

I wait—that’s not exactly what I wanted. Pleading, Joey adds, “Do you think you can come up here for me? I’d love to see you again, Brian. It’s been way too long and I need…I really need my big brother just about now, you know what I mean?”

There it is. How can I possibly refuse when he puts it like that? 2

I sleep in the guest room so I won’t have to talk to Timothy. In the morning, he wakes before I do and lets me sleep, a little thing that would normally piss me off because then I’m late for work, but I’m not going into the office today. When I stumble into the kitchen, wiping the sleep from my eyes, I upend the empty coffee pot and grumble, “Where’s the coffee?”