Kevin wanted to laugh, but his eyes were starting to sting, and his feet were moving, and the next thing he knew, his arms just opened up. Leave it to a man’s mother to come to his defense when the chips were down, even if he didn’t deserve it.

He gave her a fierce, possessive hug. She made a sound that reminded him of the mew of a newborn kitten.

He hugged her closer. “There are some things I’ve been wanting to ask you.”

A shaky sob against his chest.

He cleared his throat. “Did you ever have to take music lessons and stink at the piano?”

“Oh, Kevin … I still don’t know one note from another.”

“And do you ever get a rash around your mouth when you eat tomatoes?”

Her grip on him tightened. “If I have too many.”

“And what about sweet potatoes?” He heard a hiccuped sob. “Everybody likes them but me, so I wondered …” He stopped because it was getting hard for him to speak. At the same time, pieces inside him that had never quite fit began to come together.

For a while they simply held each other. Finally they began to talk, trying to catch up on three decades in one night, stumbling over their words as they filled in the blanks. By unspoken consent they avoided only two topics: Molly and Liam Jenner.

At three in the morning, when they finally parted at the top of the steps, Lilly stroked his cheek. “Good night, sweetheart.”

“Good night—” Good night, Mother. That’s what he wanted to say, but it felt like a betrayal of Maida Tucker, and he couldn’t do that. Maida might not have been the mother of his dreams, but she’d loved him with all her heart, and he’d loved her right back. He smiled. “Good night, Lilly Mom.”

The waterworks really opened up then. “Oh, Kevin … Kevin, my sweet little boy.”

He drifted off to sleep with a smile on his lips.

When the alarm forced him out of bed a few hours later to start breakfast, he thought about the night before and the fact that Lilly would be a permanent part of his life now. It felt good. Exactly right.

But nothing else did.

As he made his way down to the gray, empty kitchen, he told himself there was no reason to feel guilty about Molly, but that didn’t seem to matter to his conscience. Until he figured out some way to make amends, he’d never be able to stop thinking about her.

Then it came to him. The perfect solution.

Molly stared at Kevin’s attorney. “He’s giving me the campground?”

The attorney shifted his weight closer to the center of the packing box that held Molly’s computer. “He called me first thing yesterday morning. I’m finalizing the paperwork now.”

“I don’t want it! I’m not taking anything from him.”