Her eyes kept cutting to the black flour bag with the pouting penguin face that sat in its own chair at the table. I could tell she wanted to ask about it. Like, why was it black? Was there any significance to that? But it would expose her ignorance about her daughter’s school projects, and that wasn’t something she would do—certainly not in front of the teacher who’d assigned the project.

After the waiter had come by and taken our order, Doc turned to Mom. “Serena tells me you work at the hospital. What is it you do?”

“I’m a nurse practitioner working with the hospitalist,” she replied, her tone more job applicant than dinner companion.

“Say, you don’t happen to work with Parker Walsh, do you?”

“Parker, yes,” Mom replied with a smile.

I’d been thinking a lot about Parker. Wondering if he’d gotten any answers to all those tests yet. As much as I wanted to blame Parker for Kori’s death, I couldn’t. Not completely. If I hadn’t been making out with Anthony, maybe I could’ve stopped her. In that regard, Parker and I were in this together. And a part of me wanted to see if he had improved. I wanted to mark my progress against his and determine what hope I had for a full recovery.

“Thank you,” I said as I took a dinner roll from the basket Doc held out to me. “You’ve visited Parker, haven’t you, Doc?”

“A couple of times, yes. I should stop by again soon. Tomorrow maybe.”

“Do you think I could come with you? To see Parker?”

“That’s a wonderful idea. I know Parker hasn’t had many visits from people his own age.”

Mom stiffened. She caught herself right as Doc did.

“I’m sorry, I spoke too soon. I can see you object, Destiny.”

She avoided his eyes while concentrating on rearranging her napkin. “No, no, I don’t object. Of course I don’t object.”

“We could all go together, maybe that would be better?”

I beamed at his totally brilliant suggestion. Perfect. The more time Mom spent with Doc, the better my chances were of getting her to fall for him. Except Mom looked like she wanted to scream as she, instead, grabbed a dinner roll, showing more interest in it than the conversation. My eyebrows knotted in shock at her lack of concern. Parker was one of her patients; if she would only start talking about him, then Doc could see how dedicated she was to her work, how compassionate she was about her patients. He would find that endearing. But noooo. Mom ripped apart the bread and dug a chunk of it straight into the communal butter.

One glance at Doc and I could tell he was as confused by her as I was, possibly even revolted at her behavior. It was the communal butter, after all.

“Mother?”