“Are you trying to get Maddie to leave? Go home?”

 “No, we’re going to stay. I might run home and get her a change of clothes—she has blood on her clothes from Jock’s head. Not much of a cut but it sure bled a lot.”

 “And Maddie? Anything at all?”

 “Goose egg.” She touched her own forehead in the spot. Then her eyes filled with tears. “I had words with Jock Christmas night.”

 Adam frowned. “I thought the two of you did fine,” he said.

 “Not at Mom’s. I drove to his house. I wanted to talk to him about... Oh shit, about nothing, really. Just that Maddie’s growing up so fast and she’ll go off to college and get married and have children and... How are we going to balance all that?”

 “Divorced couples do it all the time,” Adam said with a shrug.

 “I’d never been in his house,” she said quietly. “He has a nice house. He has a room for Maddie.”

 “What’s the matter, Riley?”

 “I was mean to him. I kind of picked a fight with him. And he said he did his best but it was never good enough. You know I’d never even been in his house?”

 “You said that already,” Adam pointed out. “It’s okay. The only relationship you had with Jock was the parenting of Maddie and you both do that pretty well.”

 “He implied I never gave him a chance,” she said.

 “Riley, what the hell is this?”

 “I don’t know, I don’t know,” she said. She went for the purse she’d left sitting on the chair and dug around for a tissue. She dabbed her eyes and blew her nose. “I think I’ve made so many mistakes.”

 Maddie came into the waiting room with a doctor; the doctor had a bolstering hand on Maddie’s shoulder. “We’re going to take Mr. Curry into surgery. I think he’s going to have to part with that spleen, after all, and while I’m in there I can look around for any other problems.”

 “Can I talk to him?” Riley said, looking suddenly panicked.

 “He’s being prepped,” the doctor said. “He’ll be in surgery about an hour then in recovery.” He turned to look down at Maddie. “When he wakes up in recovery you can see him, but then you should go home for the night. He’s going to be groggy and it would be best for him to sleep.”

 “I’ll be quiet,” Maddie said. “I’ll sit with him and be quiet.”

 “If I thought he needed someone to sit with him, believe me, I’d put an RN at his bedside. But he’s going to be monitored, checked regularly and we’re going to take good care of him. If there’s any change in his condition, I’ll call you personally.”

 “But I’ll see him after surgery?” she asked.

 “Absolutely. I’ve got this.”

 “Okay,” she said meekly.

 Adam waited around for the two and a half hours it took for Jock to have surgery, regain consciousness in recovery and see Maddie. During that time more of Jock’s family showed up, all wanting to see him. Adam had called June and she came. He stepped outside a couple of times to text Emma and was relieved to know she was home and having a glass of wine with Lyle. When the doctor was finally ready to kick the whole lot of them out, June left with Jock’s parents, holding Jock’s mother’s hand and reassuring her.

 Maddie seemed to be exhausted. Adam walked them out to Riley’s car. “Would you like me to follow you home? Feel like talking about it?”

 “What is there to say?”

 “Well, I think maybe you have something heavy on your mind. Mistakes, Riley? I’ve always felt like you do everything right.”

 She looked at him with a weak and rueful smile. “Shows what you know.”

 “I’m coming over,” he said. “You can put Maddie to bed and we’ll talk a little bit.”

 “No offense, Adam, but I don’t feel like talking right now.” She stopped walking and looked in her purse, patted her pockets and said, “Nuts. No cell phone. It must be in the waiting room. Adam, take Maddie home please? I’ll be right behind you.”

 “Sure. I’m parked right over here, Maddie. Let’s get you home so you can get out of those bloody clothes and get a shower.”

 “Yeah. I guess,” she said, leaning on Adam.

 He put his arm around her and opened the passenger door for her, settled her into his car.

 “Thanks, Uncle Adam, for coming to the hospital.”

 “Everyone came. It was like a party.” He reached across the console and patted Maddie’s knee. “You feeling a little better now that he’s out of surgery?”

 “I guess so. It’s just that I know so many people who lost a father when they were still young, and just the thought... Two friends at school, and even you, Uncle Adam.” She sniffed back tears. “I want Daddy to have a chance to be happy, that’s all.”

 “Your dad seems pretty happy to me,” Adam said.

 “He says he’s fine, that he’s happy, that he’s proud of me. But one time when we were talking he said his one biggest regret was that he couldn’t get Mom to marry him so we could be a real family. But he doesn’t blame her. He said he made mistakes.”

 “Mistakes,” Adam muttered. “Lots of talk about mistakes these days. You know what I think? I think I’m tired of hearing about mistakes. It would be a lot more productive to leave the mistakes behind and just think about the future.”