“I’m going to be fine,” she says and takes the key from me. “You call me if you have any questions with Dylan.”

“I got him covered,” I say. She leans up, and I lean down, and we kiss goodbye.

“Maybe tonight we can work on that making out on the couch,” she says, climbing into the driver’s seat and smiling at me as she starts the SUV. I watch her back out and make her way out of the garage before I make my way back upstairs.

I slam the door and go to the kitchen first. “I’m back,” I say, grabbing an empty plate and filling it with food.

“Why did you walk Mom out?” Dylan asks, getting up and rinsing off his plate.

“When it’s a girl, you always walk her to the car and make sure she leaves safely,” I say. “And you always open the door for her.”

“Do girls walk you to your car?” he asks, and I shake my head.

“It’s a guy thing,” I point out to him. “It makes them know you like them.”

“But what if I don’t like the girl?” he says and then leaves the plate in the sink.

“You still walk her to her car and make sure she leaves,” I say.

“You always, always take care of the girls.”

He shrugs at me. “Can I go play?”

“Wash your hands with soap and then fold the covers,” I say. He walks back to the sink and washes his hands with more soap.

“We can’t leave the food out,” he says. “Or else the bugs come, and once they come, they never leave.”

“What?” I ask him.

“Once, I left a plate in the sink, and I didn’t rinse it off. The cockroaches came, and it took forever for them to leave. They were everywhere.” I look at him. “She said it wasn’t my fault, but I knew it was,” he says quietly. “She used to be up all night sometimes cleaning and doing these homemade tricks.”

“Your mom is great at taking care of stuff,” I say, trying not to think about her running herself at both ends. “How about you go fold the covers, and then we can hit the gym a bit before we work on the video game?”

He skips to the back room, and I finish eating, and then I put the leftover food on the stove with plastic wrap over it. “I’m done!” Dylan yells and comes back into the kitchen. “Can I have a snack?”