“You’re going. We’ll make it work,” she whispers, “we will.” I want so bad to hold her and hate the fact I can’t.
“What camp?”
“Football camp.”
“For how long?”
“I would leave tomorrow, bud, and I won’t be back for a long time.”
“How many sleeps?”
“Forty-four.”
“Yeah, no,” he shakes his head as if it’s final. “No, you don’t need to go. You’re already good at football. They can have camp without you.”
Clarissa speaks up, saving me once again. “Dante, he needs to go so he can get into shape.”
Dante frowns. “You’re already strong. You can lift me over your head!”
“They’ll make me stronger, bud. Faster.”
“How much stronger?”
“Like the Hulk,” I say, tossing him up and carrying him toward the door at my side. His whines bouncing out with each of my steps. “But, who, will, play, Xbox, with, me?”
“Theo will.”
“I don’t want Theo.”
“I’ll call you every day.”
“I can come see you. Right, Mommy? We’ll go too?”
“No, baby, we can’t come to this camp,” she says, locking up the house and taking the key off the chain before handing it to me. I glance down to where it sits in my palm and close it in my fist. She leans in with a whisper. “So you don’t forget where home is.”
She ushers Dante down the steps. “Come on, we can’t be late for school.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper as we make our way to her SUV.
“No way, this is happening,” she gives me a serene smile, and I see all her strength in it. “And you need to be smiling about it right now. We’ve got your back. See you tonight?”
“Tonight,” I say, walking down the steps before shooting off a text.
Troy: I’m kissing the hell out of you right now.
Amy’s Sausage Snack Wraps
Chiropractor, Chicago IL
Makes 48 snacks
30 minutes
2 8 Ounce Cans Pillsbury Refrigerated Crescent Dinner Rolls
48 Cocktail-Sized Smoked Link Sausages
Unroll both cans of dough and separate into 16 triangles. Cut each triangle lengthwise into thirds. Place sausage on shortest side of each triangle. Starting at shortest side, roll up to opposite point. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.