The overhead light flickered on, making her blink from the glare. Warrant’s snuffled snores cut off abruptly. He raised his head off of her foot when Jane swept into the kitchen as if Molly’s thoughts had summoned her. Her tall, angular form was dressed in black skinny jeans and a dark, formfitting top, with her red hair pulled back in a severe bun.

“Molly!” Bending, Jane pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.

“Hey, Mom.” Molly turned in her chair so she could examine Jane’s outfit as her mother pulled a water bottle out of the fridge. “What’s with the…look?”

“What?” Keeping the refrigerator door propped open with her hip, Jane took a long drink of water, screwed the cap back on, and returned it to the shelf before letting the fridge close again. Molly resisted the urge to ask her mom if she planned to air-condition the entire house via refrigerator. Even though Molly was only twenty-seven, being around Jane somehow made her feel like a cranky parent. “You don’t like it?” Jane asked as she did a turn, as if modeling.

“It’s very…cat-burglar chic, I guess.” When Jane jerked around with a reproving look—presumably for her skeptical tone—Molly just shrugged. She was used to having her mom’s disapproval. Molly was much too responsible to ever be the favorite. Usually, that was Felicity or Charlie, depending on Jane’s whim, but they’d all learned not to allow their mom to play them off one another. They were sisters first—sisters who shared the misfortune of having an often irresponsible mother. “Where are you off to at one on a Wednesday morning?”

Jane flipped her hand as if the words smelled bad. The familiarity of the gesture caused Molly to blink. She did exactly the same thing when she wanted to change the subject. She immediately made a firm resolution to stop. “I have to ask my daughter for permission to go out?” Jane scoffed. “Don’t forget who the mother is around here.”

Unfortunately, Jane made it all too easy to do exactly that. Her words reminded Molly of her earlier thoughts. “Will you be back by tomorrow—this afternoon, I mean? I need to talk to you.”

Smoothing her hair even though the strands were perfectly flat, Jane lifted her shoulders and let them drop. “Possibly. If the perfect opportunity to be spontaneous presents itself, I’m not going to pass it up. You’re an adult now. You need to learn that you don’t need your mom around all the time anymore.”

Molly had to clench her jaw and count to fourteen before she trusted herself to speak semicivilly. “Text me if you’re going to be gone more than a day so I don’t have to start searching hospitals and jails.”

With a light laugh—as if the suggestion was ridiculous and not a regular thing her kids’d had to do since they’d been much too young to be dealing with that nonsense—Jane headed for the door to the garage.

“Why are you going that way?” Molly asked, standing up, prepared to tackle her mom if necessary. There were hard lines, and her beloved Prius was one of them. “Your car is parked in the driveway.”