After he left, Mom shook her head.

“Sometimes the people who apologize make it sound as though I’m supposed to hand them a medal.”

“I noticed you didn’t.”

She grinned faintly.

“Your father would have been proud.”

She meant it as a joke, but it made me remember my father kneeling in our first garden, patiently showing me how to pull weeds without damaging the roots.

He would have disliked what happened, but more than that, he would have wanted me to understand that respect was not a reward people earned by being agreeable.

That evening Lucas and Derek moved the remaining beer cases into the garage, swept the basement, and inflated the mattress to test it.