Nash comes barreling in with Stitch tucked under his arm and his pajama bottoms on inside out, and the boy doesn't notice that the kitchen is too quiet, or that his mother isn't turning around to greet him, or that I'm standing at the island with a coffee cup I haven't lifted to my mouth.
He climbs up on the bench next to me with a big smile on his face. "Mornin', partner."
"Mornin'."
He looks at me. "You sleep okay?"
I think about it. "Slept fine, partner. How ‘bout you?"
"I had a dream about Diesel."
"What about him?"
"He could talk. He told me to share my snacks."
"Sounds about right for Diesel."
Nash giggles and drags Stitch into his lap. "Mama, can I have pancakes?"
"You want sausage too?" Her voice from across the kitchen, normal, the voice she uses with him.
"Yes, please."
I watch her work.
She's got her back to both of us. Her shoulders are tight in a way they weren't yesterday morning.
She's moving slower than she usually moves. Every motion is deliberate.
She brings Nash's plate out a few minutes later.
When she sets it down in front of him, she looks across him to me.
I don't look away. She doesn't either.
For one second, two seconds, three seconds, the woman is meeting my eyes the way she hasn't met them in two months—not from the corner of her eye, not in passing, not when she thinks I can't see her.
Direct. Bare. The way a person looks at something they have decided is worth looking at full on.
Then Nash says, "Mama, syrup."
She breaks the look and brings him the syrup.
I cut up his pancakes for him, and before I know it, it’s time for church.
Seven sharp.
Phantom at the head of the cypress table.
Banshee on his right. Thunder on his left. Spur, Blaze, and Blight ranged around.
Prospects are out of the room.
The shotgun above the bar gets a single beam of morning light across it the way it does this time of year.
I sit in my usual spot, and we all wait.
"Y'all know I called this," Phantom says. "Y'all know I don't call church this fucking early unless I have to. Rogue's gonna talk. Y'all are gonna listen."