Keegan steers the SUV into a short driveway and parks in front of a farmhouse that’s a decade or so behind needing a new siding job. A few of the windows are lit, indicating the occupants are home and awake.

“Hey, buddy.” I nudge Nathan, who is sound asleep on the SUV’s wide back seat between me and Lucy. It’s the first time he’s been still since we left Comerica Park. He spent the entire flight home talking about the game. It was wonderful to see him so animated. The excitement completely zapped his energy, and he fell asleep as soon as he was buckled into the car.

He shifts position and mumbles something unintelligible.

I glance up at Lucy, who is watching me with shuttered eyes. “Suggestions?”

She shrugs. “This is your party. You figure it out.”

“Come on, Nathan, we’re at your home.” I give his shoulder a shake. “You’ll be more comfortable in your own bed.”

The house’s front door swings open and two adults step outside. The woman, dressed in jeans and a gray hoodie, wraps her arms around her middle and leans against the porch railing while the man, barefoot and wearing a Green Bay Packers T-shirt and flannel pajama pants, comes down the steps and walks across the yard toward us.

I recognize him as Nathan’s father, whom I’d met at the airport just before we flew to Detroit.

I slip out of the SUV.

“How’d it go?” Nathan’s father asks.

“Good. He seemed to have a great time.”

“How’d he take the Sox losing?”

I chuckle. “He barely seemed to notice.”

“That’s good.” The man gingerly picks his way across the gravel and looks in the SUV at his sleeping child. He nods a silent greeting to Lucy. “When he’s here and they lose, he has a complete melt down, he takes it so personally, so I was worried.”

He reaches out and grabs hold of Nathan, sliding him across the leather seat. Once the boy reaches the edge, his father scoops him up and cradles him against his chest.

His eyes find mine. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough for taking him to the game tonight. His health means he misses out on a lot of the normal kid stuff, and even though he rarely complains, I know it bothers him. This is huge.”

I nod and struggle to find something, anything to say. “Next time, you’ll have to come.”

I hadn’t thought about a next time, but as soon as I hear myself uttering the words, I realize that I’ll do everything in my power to see that Nathan gets to go to more baseball games for as long his health permits.

“Yeah, man.” His eyes, so much like his son’s, are sad, and I realize that, like me, he’s wondering how much longer his son will be strong enough to enjoy basketball. “That’d be nice. Thanks again.”

Without another word, he picks his way across the gravel to the soft grass and carries Nathan to the house.

I turn and watch as he mounts the stares. His wife moves in close to his side, reaching up to stroke Nathan’s cheek before moving to open the front door, letting both of them into the house. She gives me a little wave before following them.

Pain grips my heart.

They look so completely and totally normal. Exactly the kind of couple, exactly the setting a director would choose when they needed a happy Midwestern family for some scene in a movie. No one would suspect that a cloud of sadness and uncertainty hangs over them as they struggle to come to terms with the sacrifices needed in order to care for their very sick little boy.

The more I think about what they’re going through, the more helpless I feel. I’d give anything to provide them with an instant solution to their problems.

Lost in my thoughts, I barely notice Lucy as I climb back into the SUV until she unhooks her seatbelt and slides across the wide leather seat and curls herself into my side.

My arms close around her, pulling her even tighter, not realizing how much I need her warmth, her steadiness, until I’m holding it.

She reaches up and cups my cheek in her soft hand. “You’re a good man.”

Her words are a balm to my bruised soul.

I rest my cheek on the top of her head, breathing in her good, clean scent.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

We don’t say anything else as Keegan backs the SUV out of the driveway and points it in the direction of home. Each of us is lost in our own thoughts.

Just before he turns onto Lucy’s road, I hit the intercom switch.

“Keegan?”

“Yeah.” The SUV’s intercom system makes his voice sound hollow.

“Do mind if we make a slight detour? Make a stop before going home.”

There’s a long pause. “I don’t know how safe that’d be.”

The only bad things that have happened are a threat on a piece of paper and the violent, meaningless keying of my rental car. “I think it’s okay to chance it.”

Another long pause. “Okay.” He doesn’t sound convinced.

“Thanks.” I rattle off the address. Keegan feeds the information into the SUV’s navigation system and then starts driving out of town.

Lucy tips her head back to look at me. “Where are we going?”

“There’s something I need to see.”