“God, what a swine. Where did we go wrong with him?”

“You don’t get it! It’ll be all over town by morning that he’s sleeping with her! Then who will want him?”

“Any woman would be lucky to land him.”

“No one wants a guy who’s been with the easiest girl in town.”

“Lin,” he said in his disapproving tone. “She’s a nice girl.”

“With a reputation that would make a porn star blush.” Linda plopped his plate down on the table. “I need to fix this. Fast.”

“Linda. . . You know how these things always go. Remember when you fixed Sophie’s cousin up with Grant when she was visiting LA?”

Linda stared at him, incredulous. “How is that my fault? Sophie failed to mention her little cousin had just been sprung from the psych ward.”

“Then there was Debbie’s niece, who you sicced on Adam. . .”

“When I asked him to show her a good time in New York City, I never said he should spend the whole weekend in her hotel room. And if she didn’t know she had chlamydia, how was I supposed to know?”

“Of course Tina’s songwriting sister wasn’t exactly the one for Evan.”

“Tina never told me that her sister was more interested in boozing her way through Nashville than in songwriting. But Evan figured it out.”

“Not before she puked in his new truck.”

Linda scowled at him. “Whose side are you on anyway?”

“Yours, love. Always.”

“Coulda fooled me.”

“These meatballs are exquisite.”

“Don’t go using that McCarthy charm on me. I know all your tricks.”

“So matchmaking isn’t your thing. You have many other talents. Such as making meatballs that melt in my mouth.”

“Mac needs a wife. He’ll be having babies in his forties at this rate.”

“Maybe if you’d been a little sweeter to his friend Roseanne when we were in Miami this winter, he might not be shacking up in town tonight.”

Hands on hips, Linda faced off with him.

“What? I’m just saying. . .”

“She is all wrong for him. I had her number in five minutes. His head was turned by the way she looks, but he’ll figure her out soon enough—if he hasn’t already.”

“Let’s face it, babe. There’s not a woman out there who’ll ever meet your standards for any of those boys.”

“That’s not true! I want them to be happy. I want them to have what we’ve had all these years. Is there anything wrong with that?”

“Aww, honey, of course there isn’t.” He reached for her hand and drew her onto his lap. “But you’ve gotta let them get there in their own way and in their own time.”

“I’ve tried that, and now I have four sons in their thirties who have no intention of ever settling down and having families. They’ll regret that later, Mac. You know that as well as I do.”

“Maybe so, but they’ll be their regrets.”