She held on tight to him, amazed and overwhelmed by how strongly she felt in such a short amount of time. If she hadn’t experienced similarly powerful emotions once before, she never would’ve trusted them now. But like she’d told him the night before, she knew what this was, and she wasn’t about to deny it.

“I missed you, too.”

“Thanks for doing this.”

“No problem. How does she seem so far?”

“Pretty cool. She’s talking to Mom right now, and she seems to have the sort of patience required for the position.”

The door opened behind them, and a dark-haired boy shot past them, down the stairs toward the tire swing hanging from a large maple tree in the yard.

“That’d be Ethan, Hope’s son. He’s seven and apparently full of energy.”

“He’s cute.”

“I suppose he is if you can get past the incessant talking and endless questions. My mom took an instant shine to him. She said he reminded her of us when we were that age.”

“Awww, I bet you were so cute.”

Before he could respond to that, David and Daisy arrived. Alex had told her David would attend the interview while Daisy took Marion for a drive and out to lunch.

A short time later, they had sent Marion and Daisy off in David’s car. Paul suggested they sit outside on the porch since it was such a nice day. When they were all settled, Jenny took a closer look at Hope, who was probably in her late twenties. She had long brown hair with red highlights, a creamy white complexion and brown eyes. Alex had introduced her to Hope as his girlfriend, which had given Jenny another reason to glow from the inside. He was racking up the points.

Jenny decided that Ethan must take after his father, which led her to wonder if the father was in their lives.

“Hopefully, you got a good chance to evaluate our mom and to get a sense of what she needs,” Paul said.

Nodding, Hope said, “I’m terribly sorry she’s so afflicted at such a young age.”

“It’s very unfortunate indeed,” Paul said. “Our goal is to keep her at home for as long as we can, but that’s becoming increasingly more difficult with only the two of us and a litany of friends helping out when they can. We need more reliable help.”

“It’s amazing you’ve gotten this far on your own,” Hope said.

“I’ve been trying to tell them that,” David said, “but they don’t listen to me.”

David’s comment cut through any remaining tension, and they all relaxed into laughter.

“At this point,” Alex said, “we know you’re well qualified or you wouldn’t be here. I guess it’s only fair to ask what questions you have for us.”