Ryan exhaled.
“He’s been watching me.”
“Yes.”
“All of it.”
“Yes.”
He rubbed his hands together.
“I’m scared.”
“Of what?”
“What he thinks of me.”
I watched Mason throw the football.
“He dumped ice water over your head because he wanted you to do better.”
Ryan gave a small, humorless laugh.
“Yeah.”
“That’s not something a child does when he’s given up on you.”
Ryan nodded slowly.
“No.”
“He still thinks you can be better.”
Ryan looked at me.
“Can I?”
I didn’t answer immediately.
“Be better?”
“I don’t know.”
His face fell slightly.
“I haven’t known for a while.”
“That’s fair.”
We sat with that.
Then he said, “I want to try.”
I looked at him.
“I know I’ve said things like that before.”
“You have.”
“But I mean differently.”
He glanced toward Mason.
“I want to try the way he did today.”
