Macon Moultrie was avoiding his mother’s phone calls.

He’d been on his way to work when she’d first called him that morning. She’d called again two hours later, then two hours after that, then three times since he’d gotten home from work.

This is how it always was with them.

Finally, he’d relented. After dinner he’d dialed her number, praying she was in the shower, or preoccupied with one of her million pets, or just doing anything else that would prevent her from answering the phone.

So of course she answered on the second ring.

“Macon!” she barked. “I been callin’ you all damn day! What if I was in the hospital or something?”

“I doubt you’d be calling in that case,” he said. “I’m sorry, Mom. I had a busy day.”

“Sure,” she said, exhaling. She was clearly smoking. “You were avoiding me. Like you always do.”

“I don’t always avoid you,” he said, but it was actually true. He’d been avoiding her since the day he’d left for college eight years ago. As much as he loved her, she was still part of a past he was desperate to forget.

“Well, whatever,” she said. “I just wanted to know when you planned on coming home. I haven’t seen you in forever. What if I died tomorrow? Would you even miss me?”

“Mom,” Macon said. “You know I’d be lost without you.” It wasn’t really true, but he played this game with her all the time. She needed reassurance that she mattered and that he loved her. And he did love her, but she was also exhausting at times. Besides, he was positive his mother would live to be 120 years old. She’d be one of those old women they interviewed on the news, the ones who lived past 100 even though they’d spent most of their life smoking and eating whatever they wanted. That was Pam Moultrie. He could already see it.

“I’d be lost without you too,” she said, her voice growing softer. “I miss my only baby. I sure wish you’d come visit your momma.”

Macon knew he should visit her. It had been almost two years since he’d been back to Las Vegas, but the city depressed him. As did the trailer park his mother still lived in. She’d moved to Vegas with such high hopes. But she’d never made it out of that trailer.

But Macon had.

He was an attorney now, living in Manhattan. He’d gone to NYU for undergrad and graduated from Columbia law just a few weeks ago. He started his new job in the fall, but was clerking for the summer at a firm that his law school buddy’s dad owned. And studying for the bar.

He knew if he was going to visit her, now would be the time. A lawyer’s first year wasn’t exactly full of vacation days. Not if you wanted to make partner as fast as Macon planned to.

His hope was one day soon he could get his mom out of the life she was stuck in. It was one of the things that drove him to do well. He wanted better for both of them.

But going back to Vegas always put him in a sour mood. It brought up a lot of things he’d sooner forget.

He shook his head. That didn’t matter anymore. His mom still needed him. He owed her a visit.

“I’m going to book a flight,” he said. “Any plans next week?”

He heard her exhale on the other end of the line, yelping at the news.

“You’re comin’ home? Next week? Any week! I always want to see my baby!” Pam Moultrie shouted excitedly over the phone.

Macon smiled. As crazy as she drove him, he did love to hear her happy.

“Next week, Mom,” he said. “I’ll see you then.”

* * *

Later, after he’d hung up, he couldn’t help but realize what this meant. Las Vegas wasn’t just his mother after all.

He’d tried not to think of Norah, something that was basically impossible, even on his best days. The last time he’d seen her had been the worst time in both of their lives, and it was hard to think of her and not think of Josh.

And all that had been.