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“Sophia.” His voice shifted. Just slightly. The way it did when time was up. “I've got to go.”

Her chest tightened. She breathed through it. “Okay.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Fast, warm, the shorthand of people who had said it ten thousand times and meant it more every single one. “Be smart.”

The line went quiet.

She lay in the dark with the phone still in her hand and the warmth of him still in her chest and the silence of the house around her and she breathed in, then breathed out and let it be enough.

It was enough.

She set the phone back on the nightstand and stared at the ceiling for a long time before she finally, eventually, drifted back to sleep.

The early April sun was warm but not hot, it was a perfect spring day in San Diego. A lot of the experienced sports parents had carried in light, portable seating that even included shading because people in Southern California took skin protection seriously.

Sophia just slathered on a lot of sunscreen, and skipped the seats. She was always too anxious when she watched her daughters play sports to sit still; she had to walk up and down the side-lines. Standing still and watching was Mason’s strength.

But even though she was a walker, she knew enough to come early and stake out her spot. She’d brought a small blanket and Lisa was sitting there. Smirking.

“Kayla is doing great. Mom, you don’t have to watch every little thing.”

“I watch every little thing when you play soccer.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “I know.”

“It’s because I care.”

“We know.”

Sophia started down the field as Mandy took possession of the ball toward the other team’s goalie. It was a good game. Eastlake was up by two and Kayla had been everywhere in the first half, moving with the kind of focused aggression that made Sophia simultaneously proud and slightly nervous. She had her father's instincts on a field. She always had.

At the last minute Mandy passed the ball to Kayla, but it went way over her head. There was no way Kayla could have caught it. That so wasn’t Mandy. It went out of bounds and the other team took possession of the ball and ended up scoring on Eastlake. Mandy looked devastated, and the coach took her out of the game, but not before Kayla gave her a hug.

Sophia watched as Kayla and Cat positioned themselves, during the draw. Then, Cat caught the ball and she and Kayla started running down the field. They continued to pass the ball between one another, their stickwork was fantastic.

Lisa was jumping up and down yelling her sister’s name.

As they reached the goal, it looked like Cat was going to go for the goal, but at the last second she passed it off to Kayla, who drove the ball past the goalie’s legs. Lisa went out of her mind; Sophia thought she might damage her vocal chords at the rate she was screaming.

“Did you see that, Mom? Did you?”

“I did, Lisa. I did.” She’d even gotten it on video for Mason to see it. He’d love it.

“I want to go talk to her.”

“After the game.”

Lisa sat back down on the blanket and Sophia shifted her position slightly, angling for a better view of the far goal, and that's when she saw Peggy Kowalski and Lettie Bowman. They were standing about twenty feet to the left of the main parent cluster, slightly apart from everyone else.

It would be nice to talk to them. She hadn’t been completely comfortable with how she’d left things with Lettie the other afternoon, and Mandy’s mom was always a kick-in-the-ass.

She waved at them, but neither of them noticed, and she realized they were in an intense conversation. It had to be a lot more interesting talk than lacrosse statistics. When she looked closer she saw that Lettie’s shoulders were up near her ears again.

Dammit. Now she was really concerned. Lettie was not the type of woman to ever show a less than positive emotion. She always exuded strength, confidence and positivity. Now this was the second time she looked shaken and worried. Hell, at the coffee shop she looked cornered.

Peggy lifted her paper coffee cup to her lips. It was the same coffee cup that Lettie was holding. Which was strange in and of itself. You came to the field, you came with your Yeti mug, not with a paper cup from the coffee shop.