Page 99 of Just Like Home

“You’re going to leave me alone?” Asher looked downright terrified. “You know I’ve never done this kind of work before, right?”

“That’s why I’m going to show you what to do before I leave.” Cole picked up a sledgehammer and handed it to Asher.

“What’s this for?”

“Therapy,” Cole said.

Asher frowned.

“I’ve already prepped the room,” Cole said. “So all I need you to do is remove the old plaster and the tile.”

The kid held the sledgehammer loose in his hands. “How do I do that?”

Cole took the hammer back, moved a few feet away, then hauled off and hit the wall as hard as he could.

Asher jumped at the sound. “Dang, Coach.”

Cole handed over the hammer. “Your turn.”

Asher took the tool but stared at it, unsure.

“You can’t mess it up,” Cole said. “And sometimes, I’ve found this is the best way to deal with your anger.”

“You think I’m angry?”

Cole studied his quarterback silently until the kid looked away. “Got every right to be.”

Asher refused his eyes.

“You think I don’t get it, but I do,” Cole said, really not wanting to get into any of this but certain he needed to—for Asher’s sake. “My mom left us when I was about your age, and my dad dropped us off at Haven House in the middle of the night. Had no idea when he’d be back.”

Asher’s shoulders dropped, and he finally looked back at Cole. “Really?”

Cole nodded. “Hard not to be mad about all that.”

Asher stilled. “Did she ever come back? Your mom?”

Cole shook his head. “My dad did, but he was different. He remarried a couple of years later. Has a new family now.”

The kid’s jaw quivered. “What if my mom doesn’t come back?”

Cole remembered asking Steve that same question. Being on your own at sixteen was terrifying, especially when you felt responsible for a sibling.

“You know she didn’t leave because of you, right?” Cole said, surprising himself.

“You don’t know that,” Asher said.

“Sometimes parents are working things out,” he said. “They’re supposed to have it all together, but they don’t. They’re just human, like you and me.” He said the words without thinking, and only after they were out did he realize it was true. Asher’s mom left becauseshehad things to sort through—not because her kids were bad kids. Not because they drove her away.

That was her problem. Not Asher’s.

Same way it was Cole’s mom’s problem. Not Cole’s.

The realization smacked at him as he tried to unpack what that meant. He looked at Asher. “It wasn’t your fault.”

The kid’s face fell.

“You know that, right?”

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