“Let me tell my mom I’m leaving.” Janey kissed Joe and went upstairs, where her mother was getting into bed. “Mom? Are you all settled?”

“Getting there.”

“Joe wants to take me home. Will you be okay?”

“I’ll be fine. Go on ahead.”

Janey perched on the edge of the bed. “Grant will be back shortly. He went to get Dad’s truck at the marina.”

“Oh good. He and the boys can use it.”

“They can fight over it like old times.”

Linda offered a small smile as her eyes filled.

“What, Mom?”

“I’ve been thinking about how you just never know what’s going to happen. I was in such a big rush this morning. Late for a hair appointment. Dad was in the shower, and I left without even saying good-bye.” She looked up at Janey. “What if that’d been my last chance to see him, to tell him. . .”

Janey blinked back tears of her own. “He’s not ready to leave us yet.”

Linda sat up to hug her daughter.

“I can stay if you don’t want to sleep alone.”

“Go sleep with Joe. Make sure you never miss a chance to tell him, to show him.”

“I won’t.” Janey kissed her mother’s cheek. “On that note, love you, Mom. Always have—even when it seemed like I hated you.”

Taken aback by words they rarely said out loud, Linda said, “I always knew the hate phase was an act.”

“You know everything. That’s why we call you Voodoo Mama.”

Linda scowled. “I hate that name.”

“Which is why it’s so fun to call you that,” Janey said with an evil grin. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Janey?”

She turned at the doorway.

“Love you, too,” Linda said. “My little girl who saved me from having five boys and then turned out to be the hell-raiser of the group.”

“At least I never ended up in jail like Mac the Golden Child did.” None of his siblings ever missed a chance to mention Mac’s night in jail after he and Joe got caught flattening mailboxes in Big Mac’s truck.

“True,” Linda said.

Janey blew her mother a kiss and went downstairs to Joe.

Luke made good use of the time Sydney was gone to make dinner and clean up the kitchen. While the crutches were a pain, they were necessary since he couldn’t bear to put an ounce of weight on his injured ankle. Being hobbled this way was going to seriously suck, but Luke refused to lie around and feel sorry for himself.