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Cal shifts closer, but not enough to crowd me.

“There was always a new plan. Nashville because somebody knew a producer. Austin because a band needed a guitarist. Back to Nashville because this time someone was definitely interested.”

“How many times did you move?”

“I stopped counting after five.”

His eyes widen slightly. “Didn’t you say nine schools?”

I nod.

“Mom had to start over every time. New job. New house. New friends. New route to school for me. She’d get everything settled, make the place feel normal, and then Dad would come home with another opportunity.”

“And she’d agree?”

“Always.”

I rub my thumb over the cuff of his hoodie.

“She’d be exhausted. I could see it, even when I was little. But she’d still pack everything, find another job, learn another town. All so he could keep chasing the thing he loved.”

Cal is quiet.

“By the fourth school, I stopped unpacking. I kept the boxes flattened under my bed because I knew we’d need them again.”

“You were nine.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s really fucking sad, Doc.”

I laugh once, but there isn’t much humor in it. “I thought it was efficient.”

His hand closes around my ankle.

Warm. Steady.

“Every time we drove somewhere new, Mom gave me the same speech. This is the last one, Bumblebea. Your dad has a good feeling. And she believed it every time. Or she made herself believe it.”

I look past him towards the dark window.

“I think that was the part I hated most. Watching her spend all that energy building a life she knew she might have to abandon.”

“And that’s why you chose medicine.”

“Partly.”

I take a breath.

“At twelve, medicine looked like the opposite of Dad’s life. There were steps. Exams, applications, training. You knew what came next. Even if I had to move for school or residency, it would be because I chose the path. Not because somebody else came home with another good feeling.”

Cal’s thumb moves slowly over my ankle.

“I wanted my own career. My own plan. A life nobody could change without asking me.”

“That makes sense.”

“And then Dad died, and it became about more than stability. I wanted to help people too.”