His eyes squeezed shut as soon as her thumb passed over his cheek, brushing the tears away. Maybe there was a part of him that was tempted to just cry even more, have her smooth the tears away every time, but instead James swallowed down his tears, his emotions, convinced that this was the last of it he'd show. Nothing would get done if he was just crying all the time. Nothing. He wouldn't find Mr. Sawyer, he wouldn't make his parents proud, if they were really watching down from heaven. (Sometimes, he didn't know if he believed that they were, didn't know if heaven was real, didn't know how God could take his parents away like that. But others said things happened for a reason, didn't they?)

"'kay," James quietly replied, trying his best to act like everything was normal.