Jax rubbed sugar off her palm, her eyes down, and she didn’t speak.

“I love watching you work,” Gretchen said. “Painting especially, but when you carve or sculpt I could get lost in it for hours. Have you been working on anything recently?”

“No,” Jax said, her expression completely closed off. She turned her back to Gretchen.

Gretchen looked at Jax’s broad shoulders and the way her sweater hugged her body. Jax was only eight feet away but it felt like miles. “How did we get here? How the hell—”

“I’m going to get Caleb.” Jax left the room.

She was so damn frustrated that she wanted to scream. She reminded herself to keep calm and breathe. In and out. In and out. Her heart rate was under control by the time Caleb came bounding into the room.

“Oatmeal! Oatmeal! Oatmeal!” he chanted. The dance that accompanied his excitement for something so mundane made her smile.

She brought each bowl to the small kitchen table and sat next to Caleb. He ate with gusto, she ate slowly, and Jax’s bowl went untouched. Caleb talked nonstop about school and what they were learning. He was talking about someone named Rachel when the doorbell rang.

“Come in,” Gretchen hollered. “Guess who that is?”

“Good morning.” Amanda’s voice carried through the house. She walked into the kitchen with a large shopping bag in one hand and her ever-present gigantic purse in the other. “Ooh, oatmeal. Today’s the perfect day for a hot breakfast.”

“What’s in the bag?”

“Necessities.”

Caleb’s eyes lit up, and he dropped his spoon. Breakfast was obviously old news. “Presents?”

Amanda scrunched up her face. “Sorry, Cricket, this bag is full of boring adult stuff that’ll help Mama feel better.”

He sat back with force, wearing a pout.

“Hey, Caleb,” Gretchen said gently. He shot her wicked side-eye. “Why don’t you go pick out some clothes for today, and maybe I’ll talk to Bug about getting you a present.”

The kitchen chair nearly tipped over from the velocity of his body leaving the room. Gretchen and Amanda laughed.

“The old Gretchen would’ve never bargained like that.”

“Yeah, well, the new Gretchen wants any and all peace she can get.”

“Will this help?” Amanda asked as she reached into the shopping bag. She pulled out a bag of freshly ground coffee from Gretchen’s favorite coffeehouse.

Gretchen snatched the bag and held it to her chest. She inhaled the heavenly aroma deeply. Coffee was the only medicine she needed. Now and forever. “How did you know?”

“You drank hospital coffee once a day after you were cleared to have caffeine. You deserved something better, and I knew you wouldn’t have any here.”

“So you know I went insane and quit coffee?”

“It was by far the strangest thing you’ve ever done.”

Gretchen watched Jax walk past them directly to Caleb’s room. She overheard Jax tell Caleb he wasn’t allowed to wear whatever he had picked out and continue to direct him through his tantrum. She walked out with an impeccably dressed Caleb five minutes later. She stepped around Amanda, only offering a nod of acknowledgment as she grabbed Caleb’s lunch from the refrigerator.