“She wanted to give you something to celebrate,” Ethan said, and he reached out and gripped the back of my neck the way he used to when I was small, a rough and familiar and completely undoing gesture.

“You’ve been carrying this whole family on your back since November, Leo.

She wanted you to know you don’t have to carry it by yourself anymore.”

Chapter 12 — The Drive Home

A cheer went up from the far end of the field as another wave of graduates flung their caps into the blue, and Ethan looked over at it and then back at me, and put his arm around my shoulders and steered me toward the parking lot.

“Come on,” he said.