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“I’m better now. Thanks to you.” She patted my cheeks and dropped her hands to her lap. “I don’t know what I would’ve done otherwise.”

“Of course,” I acknowledged, my voice cracking.

Haley had contacted me, frantic, before our game in Buffalo to tell me that Grandma’s Medicare plan had once again refused authorization for one of her medications, citing some technicality I couldn’t quite understand. Obviously, I’d offered to pay it right then and there. She’d passed her phone to the pharmacist and, standing in a bathroom stall in the visitor’s locker room, I’d read him my credit card number. The second the charge cleared, he released Grandma’s injections to my sister.

Naturally, I played like shit that night. After, I sat in Cally’s lap on the floor of my hotel room, my chest heaving with loud, snotty sobs. He held me through the worst of it as I railed against the injustice of an industrial medical complex where treatment decisions were made by rich white guys who made twenty million dollars a year and didn’t care if our grandmas lived or died.

She’d lived—this time. But who knew how many more times we’d have to jump through hoops just to get basic care?

Grandma’s head spun toward the foyer, where Cally was watching us. “And who’s that handsome boy lurking all the way over there? Did you bring one of your teammates home to sweep me off my feet?”

“That’s Cally, Gram. My roommate. The one I told you about?”

She beckoned him closer. “Come here so I can get a proper look at you.”

Cally stepped into the room, his long legs eating up the space, until he hovered only a few feet away. “Hello, Mrs …” he trailed off.

“You can call me Grandma,” she said with the air of a queen allowing one of her subjects to address her.

“Oh, no. I couldn’t,” he said, shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other.

She waved his protest aside. “All of Michael’s friends call me ‘grandma’ or ‘granny,’ and he tells me you’re his very best friend, so I insist.”

“You’re sure?” he asked, glancing my way for guidance.

“She’s sure,” I told him, rocking to my feet and moving to sit on the couch.

I patted the cushion next to me. Cally stared at me for a long few beats, then blew out a breath and sat awkwardly, his back ramrod straight, his palms resting on his thighs.

My grandma chuckled as my mom came down the stairs dressed in her scrubs.

“I have to head out,” she said, her eyes scanning the room until they landed on the dining table. “Oh! There it is.” She crossed over to pick up the badge resting near the salt and pepper shakers. “How’d it get there?” she murmured, clipping it on.

“I assume you boys have plans tonight,” she said as she joined us in the living room.

“We’re meeting up with Pauly and the guys in a bit,” I informed her.

She shook her head, her expression turning exasperated. “Did you hear he and Addison broke up again?”

I leaned back against the cushions, spreading my arms wide along the couch’s back. “Yeah, but he was kinda iffy on the details.”

Mom paused on her way to the foyer, grabbing her travel mug off the fireplace mantel. “Her co-worker caught her in the supply closet with her manager! And get this—Madison’s the one who told him!”

My grandma chuckled. “That’s because that girl wants him for herself.”

I scoffed. “What, no? She hates Pauly.”

“If you say so.” She shrugged.

I peered at her, watching her expression grow increasingly smug. “What do you know?” I asked, sliding my hand down to rest near Cally’s hip, my thumb hooking into his belt loop.

The tension melted almost immediately from his shoulders, and he leaned into my touch.

“What I know,” Grandma said, her face lighting up at being the one to fill me in on the gossip. “Is that Rue heard from Dorothy that Maddie was seen getting out of Pauly’s car outside her house at three o’clock in the morning.”

Cally leaned forward, his attention fixed on her as if she was delivering the most pressing story of his life. For a guy who claimed to despise all those reality dating shows I watched, he sure was invested in the messy details of my friends’ love life.

“And Madison is …?” he asked, glancing between my grandma and me.