“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about Uncle Dewayne before he comes over here,” I told him as we walked into the house.

“About what?”

I led him over to the sofa and pulled him into my lap. “You’re my number one. You know that, right?”

Micah nodded.

“And you love your Uncle Dewayne as much as he loves you.”

Micah nodded again.

“Well, I love your Uncle Dewayne too.” I did? I loved him. I did. Oh wow. I did.

Micah smiled. “Because he’s family.”

Uh-oh. I’d forgotten about that conversation. I had to explain this. “Well, actually, Uncle Dewayne is your dad’s family. Not exactly mine. But he’s yours, so I called him mine too.”

Micah scrunched up his nose. “So we don’t have the same family?”

This is what I get for lying to the kid. I wasn’t ever doing that again. Lesson learned.

“No, we do. . . . It’s just that you’re actually related to Uncle Dewayne. I’m not. He is the brother of your daddy, but he’s not related to me. I wasn’t married to your daddy. We never got a chance to do that. Remember? I explained that to you.”

Micah nodded, but his nose was still scrunched up. “Okay, so can Uncle Dewayne take you on dates, then?”

Sighing in relief, I nodded. “Yes. He can. And he wants to, but we want it to be okay with you.”

Micah grinned and made a whooping sound.

“I take that as a yes.”

He nodded vigorously. “Can he sleep over in my room?”

Oh my.

“Well, he will be here more often. He wants to spend more time with us. But if he sleeps over, your bed isn’t big enough for him. He’s a big guy.”

Micah’s expression got really serious. “We need to get him a big bed so he can sleep over.”

Okay, this was getting way off track. Right now we needed to focus on the topic of Dewayne being around more often. Not having sleepovers.

Micah jumped down, walked over to the door, and looked out. “When is he coming over?”

“As soon as I text him and tell him you’re ready for him.”

Micah turned and ran toward his room. “Text him. I’m getting my football.”

That was way too easy.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly sent Dewayne a text that Micah and his football were waiting on him.

I hadn’t even set my phone down when the front door of the Falcos’ opened up and Dewayne stepped out. He must have been waiting anxiously for that text. He was so big and tough, but the little boy inside him that he never let others see owned me.

“Looks like he’s on his way over,” I called to Micah.

Micah came running around the corner with his football tucked under his arm. “We’re gonna play some ball,” he told me before letting the screen door slam behind him.

I walked over to the door and watched as Micah ran straight for Dewayne and held up the football. The smile on Dewayne’s face as he looked at my son made right everything that had been wrong.

His eyes lifted from Micah and found me, and then he winked before looking back at Micah.

I stood there and watched them toss the ball back and forth. Dewayne showed Micah how to improve his throw, and I watched as Micah worked hard to get it right. I finally let myself accept something I’d been fighting since I was fourteen years old. I had always loved Dewayne. It had always been him. Dustin had been my best friend and I’d been his. But my heart . . . Dewayne had stolen that in front of a locker on my first day of high school.

Six years ago . . .

SIENNA

They hadn’t let me out of my bedroom since my doctor’s visit. I had been throwing up so bad for two mornings in a row that my mother had taken me to the doctor. She’d thought I had a stomach virus.

But we had both been surprised when the doctor informed us that I was pregnant. Not sick. Pregnant.

Mother hadn’t spoken to me the whole way home, and then she’d sent me to my room and ordered me to stay. My dad never once came to see me. Mother showed up with food at my door three times a day. I even had to open the door and ask to go to the bathroom.

I knew they were upset. I was terrified. Dustin was gone, and I had no one I could tell. No one to share this with, and now my parents were shutting me out. That scared me more than anything. The one thing I could be sure of was that this baby was safe. My father was too religious to make me have an abortion. For once I was thankful for his strict beliefs.

But I had questions, and I had no one to ask. My mother refused to speak to me when she brought me my meals. I didn’t have a phone in my room, and no one had stopped by to see me. That wasn’t too surprising. Dustin’s friends had accepted me, but they had never really been my friends.

So I sat here in my window seat and watched the world outside. I watched the people who came and visited the Falcos. People were still bringing them food. It was what we did here in the South. If someone died, you took their family food. I never understood that. I hadn’t been able to eat for days after Dustin’s death. I had cried and slept. That had been all I could manage.

At his funeral, what little strength I had to keep it together was gone the second I saw Dewayne Falco’s shoulders slumped, jerking harshly from crying. I never even imagined that Dewayne could cry. He was so tough and larger than life. But in that moment, seeing him broken, I lost it all over again. I hated seeing him in so much pain. He loved his brother, and Dustin had worshiped Dewayne.