Our studio was flooded with cards, flowers, and presents from fans wishing me well. We really were lucky to have them. I spent the day rearranging my tour equipment and putting thinner strings on my guitar so it wouldn’t be so much of a strain on my arm. We were to fly out to the next show in the morning, the tour bus would meet us there and we would continue the rest of the tour. I was glad we had scheduled in a small break mid tour so that we only had to cancel two shows.

Rebecca was amazing at reassuring the promoters and venue managers that there was no danger of canceling more shows. The owner of Cain’s, a good friend of ours, as very kind and understanding. He knew that our fans would fill his venue anytime we played there. He even waived the cancellation fee for us.

“Hi.”

I turned around to look at Zac. He rubbed the toe of his shoe on the carpet.

I didn’t say anything, I just got up and gave him a big hug.

“I. . . “ We started at the same time.

“Look, Ike. I treated you like crap, and you were sick. I’m sorry. But you do need to get off my case about things. I’m grown.”

“I know you are. You are a lot more grown then other people your age. But I care about you and that is never, ever going to stop, no matter how old you get. I want you to take care of yourself. That’s why I’m so hard on you.”

“Well, you aren’t a great example of that yourself.”

“Yeah. I know. I’m going to try to do better, though.”

“Tay went home to spend time with Natalie before we leave again. Is there something I can help you do?”

“Wanna grab some lunch?”

“No, I ate already.”

I looked at him, but fought the urge to say anything about it. Am I a better big brother if let it go or am I better big brother if I say something?

The course of medicines I was on suppressed my appetite and I didn’t feel like eating, either. I was going to have to make myself, though, so I could be a good example for Zac. Not to mention that I was going to have to keep my energy up somehow during tour. I didn’t want to pass out and have to cancel more shows. I didn’t want anything to delay the second surgery, either. I wasn’t looking forward to it, by any means, but I wanted to get it over with so life could be normal again. Then maybe Nikki and I could start working on a sibling for Everette. Or we could go on a nice vacation, just us. We had talked about it for after tour, but never made any solid plans. I guess there wasn’t any point in trying to squeeze it in this year.