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“Dad said a lot of things.”

“Ignorance isn’t an excuse,” I said.

Now Thomas smiled. “At least there are no pictures ofmyyou-know-what out there. Not that I know about, anyway.”

“Is that what passes for good news today?”

“Either way,” Thomas said, “you were going to get crushed.”

“When I saw the paper, I thought about quitting, no lie. Just to put myself out of my misery. Like a mercy killing.”

He pulled his sneakers off the railing in front of us and turned to face me. Somehow, no matter how much older Thomas got, I still saw him as the charming little boy he used to be.

“You can’t quit,” he said. “Not when I’m going good.”

“Josh Bauer,” I said. “I hadn’t even thought of him in years. But I was right about one thing, even when I was young and stupid: he turned out to have all of the qualities of a dog except loyalty.”

“You want me to find him and beat him up? That’s how we would have handled it when we were kids.”

“If anybody’s going to do that, it will be me.”

“So what do we do about our present circumstances?” Thomas said.

“You mean me going viral?”

“Yeah. That. And in the flesh.”

I thanked him for that.

“The first thing I have to do is head over to Hunters Point and quit there before they fire me. They don’t deserve this.”

Thomas said. “The one who doesn’t deserve any of this is you, Sis.”

I looked down at the field. A couple of players were out early, jogging up and down the sidelines. Then I noticed the photographer behind the Wolves’ bench pointing his camera directly at Thomas and me. I fought the impulse to turn around and moon him, just to keep with the theme of the day.

We got up from the terrace seats and went back inside.

“I certainly made things easy for all those old dude owners who act like old ladies,” I said.

Thomas laughed.

“Are you joking? How about the one who got caught with the hooker a couple of years ago? This isn’t even a misdemeanor compared to that.”

“Danny and Jack are just going to keep coming if Idon’tquit. With everything they’ve got.”

“You let me worry about our brothers,” Thomas said. “Danny told me that everybody’s got a past. Well, guess what? That includes them.”

“They don’t seem to have much interest in fighting fair,” I said.

“Now I don’t, either,” Thomas said.

He kissed me on top of my head.

“They got stuff on you? You think I don’t have stuff on them? I’ve been waiting to take both of them down my whole life.”

Twenty-Five

I’D GOTTEN THE EMAILfrom the principal at Hunters Point, Joey Rubino, around one o’clock. He said he wanted to see me after school let out to discuss my “situation.” To the best of my knowledge, it was the first time I’d ever heard my exposed rear end described quite that way.