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“That’s not fair.”

Maybe it wasn’t. She’d worried about him before that too. He could admit that much, but he couldn’t seem to stop now that they’d started. “You don’t get to tell me what I should do with my gift, Mom. You’ve always thought you did, but you don’t.”

“I helped you learn to use it.”

“I know. And I’m grateful. But you’ve never had to live with it. Not the way I have. You had to drink tea just to hear Leo properly at dinner. We’re not the same.” He pushed away from the wall. “You wanted me to spend my days going out looking for more of them. And when I said I didn’t want to, you acted like I was being selfish. Like I owed it to everybody because I was good at it.”

“There were people who needed you.”

“I needed things too.” That came out louder than he’d intended.

Leo stayed beside the windowsill. Nate was glad he hadn’t tried to follow him. He needed to move, even if moving only meant crossing the dining room and coming back.

His mother hadn’t answered.

“I liked working on houses,” he said. “I still do. That was enough for me. It never seemed to be enough for you.”

“I know you think I don’t value your work.”

“You don’t.”

He could hear her draw breath to object. Then she let it out again.

Nate stopped by the window. Leo was close enough that he could have reached for him, if reaching would have accomplished anything.

“I want to be here,” Nate said. “With him. And I can do that because of this thing I’ve spent half my life trying to ignore. I thought you might be a little pleased about that.”

“I’d like to be,” his mother said quietly. “But you’re telling me you’ve been hurting yourself to be with him. What am I supposed to do with that?”

“Help me stop hurting myself. That’s what I called to ask for.”

“And I will. But the remedy won’t make your body stop needing rest. You can’t keep leaving it behind whenever you want to touch him. What happens when you want more time than you can safely have?”

Nate didn’t have an answer ready. He hated that she could hear it in the gap before he spoke.

“Then we’ll have to figure something out.”

“You understand why that worries me.”

He did, which was frustrating. She could be right about something without being right about everything, but he’d never been very good at explaining that to her.

“Ask her if the remedy will help now,” Leo said.

Nate turned to him.

“With what you’ve already done,” Leo clarified. “Please.”

Nate repeated the question.

“It should help him recover, yes. I’ll prepare some this afternoon. Jonah can bring it over.”

“You don’t have to send him.”

“He’s already mentioned that he wants to see you.”

Nate glanced at Leo, who raised his eyebrows as if daring him to find another objection.

“Okay,” he said. “Thanks.”