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He shook his head. “No, but she let me sleep in your bed with her.”
“So you two slept in my bed while I was wedged into the corner of the couch? And now I’m stuck with a sore neck?”
“Yep.”
I stabbed his top pancake with my fork. “I changed my mind; I’m taking one.”
“Hey!”
“You can’t eat all those, Jojo. And I’m making eggs and sausage if you want some. But as soon as you finish eating, you need to hit the shower. You’re going over to Wes and Hadley’s while I go to practice.”
Joey groaned. “Are those two babies gonna be there again?”
“The twins?”
“Yeah, they cry all the time.”
“That’s what babies do. You just have to live with it.”
He sighed dramatically. “I don’t like babies.”
“Less complaining, more eating.”
After eating a few bites in silence, he set his fork down. “Uncle Boone, can I be on a hockey team?”
I looked up from the eggs I was whisking. “Hell yeah, you can. I mean, we have to ask your mom, but she’ll probably say yes. Andy and I started playing when we were about your age.”
“Okay.”
Joey was going to be a hockey player. Agreatone. At least if I had anything to say about it.
* * *
“So that’swhat a power play is,” I said about an hour later as I turned into Wes and Hadley’s neighborhood. “Does that make sense?”
“Yes.”
I was about to ask him to explain it back to me when my phone rang through the speakers in my car, my brother’s name popping up on the screen. It was unlike him to call in the morning, so I was immediately worried.
“Hey, man, everything okay?” I said in answer.
“Mikey.”
His voice was strained with emotion, and my blood ran cold.
No. No, no, no. I wasn’t ready. He was going to tell me the cancer had spread, and I wasn’t ready to hear it. I’d break down in front of Joey, and that would upset him.
“Hey, can I call you back in ten minutes?” I asked, my throat tightening.
After a moment of silence, he said, “It worked.”
I waited for him to elaborate, not breathing.
“I had my appointment this morning, and the chemo worked. There’s no detectable cancer left.”
He was crying because he was happy. Tears sprang to my eyes and ran down my cheeks.
“It worked?” My voice broke as his words sank in.
