“Well, Jill doesn’t live there anymore. She’s in college. Kate’s a high school graduate with a job and a car, so I hardly see her.”

“What about Maggie?”

“She’s been spending a lot of time at Jack’s house. There’s a lot of excitement there with the babies and all.”

He looked up with surprise. “They had the babies already?”

“They arrived a month early, in the midst of their parents’ wedding.”

Dr. Baker tapped his lip with his pen. “Wow. How do you feel about that?”

Clare shrugged. “I’m happy for them that everything went well.”

“That’s awfully generous of you. Hold that thought for a minute. Let’s go back to Maggie. What kind of custody arrangement have you worked out for her?”

“Nothing formal. We’ve been doing two nights on, two nights off, with a few deviations.”

“How does she get back and forth?”

“Jack usually drives her, but sometimes she comes with Kate.”

“So you see him often?”

“Most of the time just to wave to when he drops Maggie off. He’s giving me some space at the advice of my mother,” Clare said with a wry grin.

“Do you need the space?”

She looked down at her hands, which twisted back and forth in her lap, and nodded.

“You don’t want to see him?”

She shook her head and was stunned to realize she was going to cry.

“Clare?”

“I can’t stand being in that house,” she whispered as a fat tear rolled down her cheek. “I can’t stand it.”

“Because Jack’s not there?”

“Mostly that, but no one’s there. Well, my mother’s staying with me, but that’s not what I mean. Before all this, my life was about taking care of them. I had my job, but my priority was my family. I don’t seem to have a family anymore. My girls went and grew up in my absence, and they don’t need me anymore.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“They’re very self-sufficient. They make their own meals. They even do their own laundry.”

“I’m sure you know they’d be doing that by now, even if you hadn’t been ill.”

“Of course, but I missed the transition, so it just feels like another loss.”

“I’m sure it does, but you shouldn’t take that to mean they don’t need you. Do we ever fully outgrow our mothers?”

“I know I haven’t. I don’t know what I would’ve done without mine in the last few months.”

“Well, see? There you go. Give them some time to adapt to having you back in their daily lives. They’ll start to lean on you again.”

“I hope so.”

“What about Jack? What’re you feeling toward him now that you’re home?”