Sherry gave up her attempt to read her book and switched on the TV to pass the time. Pass the time. To have free time was still a new experience for her. When she’d been in high school, she had dreamed of going to college and spending all her time learning. But even though she had been a good student, this had always been nothing but a dream, drowned out by endless work and barely getting by. Now there was nothing to hold her back anymore, and she was considering taking some classes at the nearby community college.

The thought brought a smile to her face, but it dimmed when Madison moaned. “Sorry.” Sherry took the remote control. “I should have asked you. I’ll turn it off again.”

“Huh? Oh, no, no.” Madison put her paperwork and her notebook onto the coffee table. “God, it’s impossible to learn all of this in such a short time.”

“But didn’t you study this?”

“It feels like that was a hundred years ago. And no, I can barely use anything I learned in my business studies.” She gestured toward the stack of paperwork on the coffee table. “This is something entirely different. It’s about company policies, department procedures, and—”

“We’re back!” Rita Mae called from the hall a second before Jake came running into the room at a breakneck speed and then jumped between Sherry and Madison on the couch.

Worried, Sherry peeked at Madison. She was under a lot of stress. Hopefully, she wouldn’t snap at Jake for disturbing her.

“There was a dog sitter at the park. He gets money for playing with dogs. When I’m grown-up, I want to be a dog sitter, too.”

“Baby, Madison is working and—”

But Madison caressed his hair in a tender gesture, and he leaned in to her. “It’s okay.” Madison opened her arms, and Jake snuggled into her. “Maybe being a dog sitter isn’t as exciting as you might think.”

“Why not?”

“Well, imagine you have to pick up the dog’s poop all day.”

“Ugh.”

“Now, I might know something you’d rather like to do.” She leaned forward to whisper something in his ear.

His eyes widened, and he started grinning from ear to ear. Giggling, he moved to Sherry and snuggled close to her. “Moooom?”

What were those two plotting? “Yeah?”

“Can I drive on a fire truck?”

“What?”

“I saw something on TV,” Madison said. “The local fire department is offering tours for children, and in that report, I saw some kids in the background on a fire truck.” Madison sounded as if she was the kid asking her mother for permission.

“I see.” She felt somehow blindsided, but she couldn’t be angry with Madison. She was too damn cute for that. “We’ll see. Maybe.”

Jake jumped up and cheered.

“Hey, that’s not a yes.”