“Maybe.” Although they’d have to talk at some point about why he felt the need to keep the bigger details of his life from her. “What would you think of that?”

“Well, you know I’m not a big fan of shacking up.”

Sydney laughed. “Come on, Mom. It’s not 1950 anymore.”

“I don’t care if it’s 2050,” Mary Alice said haughtily. “People should be married before they live together.”

“We can agree to disagree.”

“It’s not lost on me that you’re nearly thirty-six and can do whatever the heck you want.”

“Well, thank you for that, but your approval has always mattered to me—maybe a little too much.”

“It’s also not lost on me that you seem very happy with him, and your happiness matters more than anything to me. So I’ll do my best to keep my opinions to myself from now on.”

Sydney rolled her eyes. “That’ll be the day.”

“Now that’s just not nice,” Mary Alice said with a grin.

“Truth hurts,” Syd said, kissing her mother’s cheek.

“I was planning on steak and baked potatoes for dinner tomorrow night. Does Luke like steak?”

“He loves it. That’ll be perfect.” Sydney scooped up Thomas and wiped the last of the chocolate from his face. “What do you say for the cookies?”

“Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome, Thomas. I hope you’ll come visit me again soon.” Mary Alice handed Sydney a baggie full of cookies. “For your patient.”

Touched by the gesture, Syd took the bag. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ned hovered outside Big Mac’s room, waiting for the opportunity to see his best friend. What a damned upsetting day this had been! When he’d seen Big Mac in the water, blood pouring from his head. . . Ned shuddered at the memory. For a few minutes there, he was sure his friend was dead. Thank God Mac had acted so quickly—and at his own peril—to save his father. And Luke! What that boy had done! Ned would be reliving the horror of it all for a good long time.

Big Mac was urging Linda to go home. Ned had to agree with his friend—the usually unflappable Linda McCarthy looked to be on her last legs.

“I swear I’ll be fine,” Big Mac said, drawing his wife into a kiss. His left arm was encased in a cast and resting on a pillow. “Go on now. We can’t have you dropping from exhaustion.”

Linda was weepy and clingy—two other things Ned had never seen before. The whole scene was only adding to his stress level.

“Come on, Mom,” Janey said, putting her arm around her mother. “Joe and I will take you home.”

“I’ll stay with Dad,” Grant said.

“You go, too,” Big Mac said. “You look like hell. Get some sleep. Come back in the morning.”

“But Dad—”