So I said, “Do you want me to teach you how to play poker?”
“You don’t know how to play,” she scoffed. “Conrad beats you every time.”
“Fine,” I said. I stood up. I didn’t feelthatsorry for her.
“Never mind,” she said. “You can teach me.”
I sat back down. “Pass the cards,” I said gruffly.
I could tell Belly felt bad because she said, “You shouldn’t sit too close. You’ll get sick too.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “I never get sick.”
“Neither does Conrad,” she said, and I rolled my eyes. Belly worshipped Conrad, just like Steven did.
“Conrad does get sick, he gets sick all the time in the winter. He has a weak immune system,” I told her, although I didn’t know if that was true or not.
She shrugged, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. She handed me the cards. “Just deal,” she said.
We played poker all afternoon and it was actually pretty fun. I got sick two days later, but I didn’t mind that much. Belly stayed home with me and we played more poker and we watchedThe Simpsonsa lot.
chapterthirty-fiveJEREMIAH
As soon as I heard Belly come up the stairs, I met her in the hallway. “So? What’s going on?”
“My mom’s calling your dad,” she said gravely.
“She is? Wow.”
“Yeah, so, don’t, like, give up already. It’s not over yet.” Then she gave me one of her wrinkly-nose smiles.
I clapped her on the back and practically sprinted down the stairs. There was Laurel, wiping down the counter. When she saw me, she said, “Your father’s coming over. For breakfast.”
“Here?”
Laurel nodded. “Will you go to the store and get some things he likes? Eggs and bacon. Muffin mix. And those big grapefruit.”
Laurel hated to cook. She had definitely never mademy dad a lumberjack breakfast. “Why are you cooking for him?” I asked.
“Because he’s a child and children are cranky when they haven’t been fed,” she said in that dry way of hers.
Out of nowhere, I said, “Sometimes I hate him.”
She hesitated before saying, “Sometimes I do too.”
And then I waited for her to say, “But he is your father,” the way my mom used to. Laurel didn’t, though. Laurel was no bullshit. She didn’t say things she didn’t mean.
All she said was, “Now get going.”
I got up and gave her a bear hug, and she was stiff in my arms. I lifted her up in the air a little, the way I used to do with my mom. “Thanks, Laure,” I said. “Really, thanks.”
“I’d do anything for you boys. You know that.”
“How did you know to come?”
“Belly called me,” she said. She narrowed her eyes at me. “Drunk.”
Oh, man.“Laure—”
