“Should I start calling you Doctor Grumptopus?” I tease.

He lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Fine, I’ll keep my mouth shut and not worry about your health.”

He’s turned away from me, taking a seat at the table, so thankfully he doesn’t catch the way I get stuck for a few moments, frozen in place, hand around my coffee mug. His words hit a strange place inside of me that I wasn’t aware of. A place that might appreciate having somebody actually worry about me. Somebody besides my daughter.

Last night I told him I wanted a partner I could depend on. Maybe he’s just playing the part. Worrying about my health kind of falls into that category, right?

I shake myself out of it and join him at the table. Quietly, I tell him, “In case I haven’t said it enough, thank you. For doing all this.”

He chuckles. “You’ve thanked me about a hundred times.”

“Well, consider this one hundred and one.”

Leaning in closer to me and keeping his voice down too, he says, “I’m still not sure I understand where your anxiety with the two of them comes from. They seem nice. Different than you, sure. But they obviously love you and May.”

“They love May.”

His eyes peer into mine, making me feel like he can see all the way inside me to the vulnerable squishy parts. “You don’t think they love you?”

“I think...” Unable to articulate what I think, I take a sip of coffee instead. But he doesn’t stop looking at me in that imploring way, so I have to continue. “They care about me in the sense that they know I’m raising and loving their granddaughter. I don’t think they approve of a lot of my choices, though, and in the beginning, they wanted to fight me for custody. But April, May’s mom, had all the paperwork done up legally, and I had the money to support a child from my parents’ deaths, so they knew they didn’t have enough of a case. They let it go and tried to be civil because they were probably afraid I’d cut them out of May’s life entirely.”

Travis reaches out and takes my free hand, the one not gripping my mug like a lifeline. “That sounds tough. But I don’t think it means anything negative against you. I’m sure most grandparents in that position would’ve done the same thing. It’s unusual for a mom to choose a non-relative to raise her child, but it shows how much your friend trusted you, how she knew you’d be everything May needed.”

April knew I’d need May just as much as she needed me. And she was right.