“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear it.”

“You will now, once the weather warms up. I can’t believe I didn’t have any warm clothes up there.” She shook her head at the pile of skirts, dresses, and linen shirts covering her bed.

Amanda shrugged from her place in the doorway. “Maybe it didn’t fit.”

Gretchen frowned. “We have to go shopping. Wait. Do I have money? How have my bills been getting paid?”

“About that,” Amanda said just before walking away. She came back into the room with a checkbook. “I should probably give this back to you. After your first few days in the hospital, I went searching for it. Thankfully you are very, very meticulous when it comes to your finances.”

“I can’t believe more people aren’t.” Gretchen flipped through the pages.

“You have everything on autopay. Your car, phone, and credit card payments are all taken care of. Stepping in for you was easy.”

“Well, thank you for thinking of it. I’m sure Jax didn’t since our finances seem to be separate now. I’m sure you’re sick of this woe-is-me attitude—”

“No.” Amanda stepped up to Gretchen and put her hands on her shoulders. “You have a lot to process, and I’m here to listen and help. If you need to talk about the same things over and over, go for it.”

Gretchen stepped into Amanda, just needing the comfort of a hug. “It’s so bizarre, and I don’t understand any of it. But what I do know is I need to go shopping, and today is the perfect day for it.” Gretchen stepped back and tapped the checkbook against her palm. “I deserve it.”

“Then I say we pick up Caleb along the way and make an afternoon out of it.”

“Let’s do it.”

After three hours of mall hopping and stopping for treats to keep Caleb happy, Gretchen returned home with bags of clothing and a bright smile. She felt really good for the first time in weeks. She declined Amanda’s help getting everything into the house. What was the point to having a kid if you couldn’t put him to work? Caleb carried her purse and the lightest of the five bags.

“Where the hell were you?” Jax said, jumping off the couch the moment they walked through the door. Caleb froze and looked panicked. “Give me those.” Jax took everything from Caleb and ushered him to the kitchen.

Gretchen was only a few steps behind, already annoyed at the fight she was in no mood for. “We went to two malls. I needed clothes. We had a great afternoon together—didn’t we, Caleb?”

Caleb reached into a bag and pulled out a pair of socks with Spider-Man on them. “I got this.” He waved them back and forth to make sure Jax saw them.