The next morning, Roy woke late, feeling as though he’d just fallen asleep, and dragged himself out of bed to face the day. His body ached all over from the fall, and he rubbed the good-sized goose egg on the back of his head. He hadn’t had one of those in years. He showered before going to wake the kids and examined the growing bruise on his hip. Maybe he would beg off his run with Patrick this morning.
On his way downstairs, he knocked on the girls’ bedroom doors until he heard a strangled “coming” from Amber and a perky “yep!” from Jade, who bounced down the stairs only a few minutes behind him.
“Where’s your sister?”
“She fell asleep again.”
“Was she reading last night?” he asked, remembering that Nicole sometimes took away Amber’s book at night if she wasn’t sleeping.
“I dunno,”
