Adam opened the front door of his mom’s house quietly, hoping she was still asleep by some miracle. He’d ended up falling asleep at Kylie’s on accident and didn’t wake up until her alarm went off this morning. Unfortunately, Kylie got up later than he did, so he was running behind even more than usual, which was saying something.

His mom looked up from the dining room table and without a word, folded up the Franklin Gazette and set it off to the side.

Shit. He’d been caught by his mother, trying to sneak into the house without her noticing, and of course, she’d noticed. He swallowed his groan. He was way too old to put up with this sort of thing from his mother, for hell’s sakes.

But when she opened her mouth, she surprised him. “Adam, I want to apologize,” she said solemnly.

He felt his jaw hit the deck. His mother? Apologize? This wasn’t exactly something that she did regularly. Or, ever, to be more precise.

“You can wipe that look of shock off your face,” she said mildly. “I’ve apologized to you before.”

About what? And when? But he decided that if he was ever going to actually hear this apology of hers, he should keep his sarcastic thoughts to himself.

Instead, he slid into his chair kitty corner from his mom’s and took her soft, spotted hand in his. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“The other day, when you talked to me about the retirement home, I didn’t take it well.”

The corners of Adam’s mouth threatened to curl up at that one, but he fought hard to keep a straight face. To be fair to his mother, she didn’t exactly have a lot of experience apologizing to other people. He needed to cut her some slack. But still… “Not well”? Sure, and he’d heard that the Titanic’s maiden voyage didn’t “go well,” either.

“This whole arthritis thing has really been difficult, but I kept telling myself at least I was staying in my home. It was my consolation prize – maybe I can’t crochet anymore, but darn it all, I can sleep in my own bed under my own roof.”

She shook her head, her faded blue eyes downcast as she pulled her hand away from Adam’s and began fiddling with the head of her cane. “Asking you to move in with me…I should’ve known from that, that I wasn’t going to last much longer here. Well, I guess in the end, it did give me quite a few more years, but still, I shouldn’t have even asked you to move in here. That was me being selfish and wanting to extend my independence for as long as possible.

“Zara…she’s wonderful. And I really appreciate her coming over, and I appreciate you arranging for that.” She leaned over and squeezed his hand. “But she’s a girl and she needs to live in her own house with her parents, not here with me, and…I need more help than some afternoons a couple of times a week.” She swallowed hard, looking rather like she’d just bit into a wormy apple. “Margaret and Susan both live up at the retirement home, and they love it. They volunteer down at the second-hand store and say it’s the best part of their week. I’d like to go outside and do something for other people. I feel so worthless, just sitting around and reading all the time. I want to help other people. I want to be wanted.”

This was exactly what Kylie had told me. She knew my mother better than I did.

She let out a big, shuddering sigh, and then said softly, “I’m not going to tell you that I want to do something just yet, but will you take me over to the center? I want to look around, and then think about it. Would you be kind enough to take me there, even after I behaved so badly to you?”

Adam pulled in a deep breath. “I would love to, Mom, but we need to talk about what you said about Kylie. If I’m lucky, I’ll marry her someday, and I won’t have my mother talking about my wife like that. Did you mean what you said, or were you just angry?”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember what I said.” She grimaced. “I was mad and wanted to make you mad. Which is a sad state of affairs for someone as old as me to find herself in, ‘cause I should be old enough to know better. My momma raised me better than that. I…I was scared.” She shrugged her thin shoulders.

Adam wasn’t about to let her off the hook so easily, though. “You said she was trying to get rid of you so she could have me all to herself. You were also angry about the car being sold to her.”

His mother’s pale cheeks turned a bright red. “Oh my, oh my,” she whispered, distressed. “I didn’t mean it, I promise. You didn’t tell her any of that, did you?”

“I generally don’t start World War III before breakfast if I can help it,” he said dryly. “No, I knew you weren’t yourself in that moment, and I wasn’t about to report any of that to Kylie. She is just trying to help. She likes you a lot, and I want to keep it that way.”

His mom reached out her liver-spotted hands to pat his. “Thank you,” she said softly. “I really like Kylie, too – she makes you happy, and for that, I’d love her even if she were a three-headed monster who ate cats for breakfast, although I have to say that her being sweet and hardworking certainly doesn’t hurt her case.”

“Sassy, did you hear that?” Adam called out. She lifted her calico head and stared at him, yawning as he talked. “Your momma says it’s okay if a three-headed monster eats you for breakfast.”

Deciding that nothing of interest was happening, Sassy snuggled back down into the couch and went right back to sleep.

“She’s terrified,” Adam said, turning back to his mom.

“I can see that,” his mom said dryly, and laughed. “I don’t know what your schedule looks like this week,” she said, returning to the topic at hand, “but if you can take me over to the home at some point, I’d like to tour it with you. Then I can decide.”

Adam’s mind skipped back to his “Let’s play hooky” attitude yesterday afternoon. Had it really only been 18 hours ago? It felt like a lifetime ago. But because he’d skipped his appointments yesterday, that meant he was even more behind today.

And yet…

“Let’s go right now,” he said impulsively. “I’ll have Kylie move my appointments from this morning. I don’t have anything pressing going on – no one is giving birth or dying on me – so what I’m doing can be moved by a day or two.”

“Today?” Mom said, her eyes lighting up with excitement. “Well then, I best get ready! I can’t go there looking like this.” At Adam’s blank look – she looked like she always did – she shook her head in disgust. “Men,” she muttered, and then pushed herself to her feet. “I’ll be back in a jiffy,” she promised him, pushing her walker down the hallway as she hurried as fast as her old bones would allow her.

She came back wearing a string of pearls, a matching pantsuit he hadn’t seen in ages, and bright red lipstick. “C’mon,” she said, winding her arm through his, “if we hurry, we might be able to catch breakfast. I want to see what they consider to be a meal. Bad food will kill me off faster than you can say ‘Kentucky.’”

As Adam escorted his mother to his truck, helping to get her into the passenger seat safely, he couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. Really, life couldn’t be much better than this.