“Well, I am. Who was it, Meagan?”
Meagan sighed gustily. “Not that it’s any of your business, but it was Seth Llewellyn.”
“Alice’s dad?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And…he asked me to attend a charity dance with him next Friday night. Nothing serious, he just needed a date.”
“Ah hah!”
“Ah hah, what?”
“I thought you were interested in him,” Madison said smugly. “You said he’s cute and you’ve been spending time with his kid. Meagan’s got a crush.”
“Don’t be so juvenile, Maddie.”
“Just being observant,” her sister retorted. “Your cheeks were all pink and your eyes were all shiny when you came back from your call. You’re so interested.”
Meagan felt her cheeks warm again. So maybe she’d been a little flustered by Seth’s call. She wasn’t going to deny that there’d been a few sparks between them, which she had suspected weren’t all on her side. But she hadn’t expected him to call today.
He had apologized for asking with only a little more than a week’s notice, and had made a somewhat rehearsed-sounding speech about how he would understand perfectly if she turned him down. It had been that rather charmingly self-conscious assurance that had prompted her to accept despite any reservations she might have about going out with her single-dad neighbor.
“Like I said, he needed a date for a professional function,” she muttered, picking up her cup of cooling coffee. “I got the impression he had forgotten about the event.”
“And your name just happened to pop into his mind.”
“Or maybe I was the only person he thought might be available on rather short notice,” she shot back at her sister. “Really, Madison, aren’t we beyond teasing each other when we have a date? We’re hardly naive teenagers still all giggly about spending time with boys.”
That said, Meagan turned firmly to their mom. “Is Meemaw eating any better since her doctor changed her meds?”
Their grandmother had visited with them for a few minutes when Meagan and Madison arrived half an hour earlier but she’d excused herself then for a nap, asking her daughter to assist her to bed. She was spending more and more time in her bed these days, despite her daughter’s efforts to keep her active and engaged.
“Maybe she’s eating a little better. Not a lot.”
Teasing forgotten, Meagan and Madison shared a glance in response to their mother’s worried expression. Their mom was reluctant to admit that her own mother was failing rather quickly from congestive heart failure and other ailments.
The woman Meagan and Madison had always known as “Meemaw” was in her eighties, having been somewhat older than average when her only child was born. A lifetime of self-neglect had taken its toll on her health; their grandmother had always been the type to take care of everyone but herself, Meagan thought with a little wince. Apparently, it was a genetic trait. Meagan would have to do better about making sure she took time for her own health needs from now on.
As should her mom, she thought, looking in concern at her overextended parent. Mom was too thin, she thought, studying the slender frame outlined by her mother’s casual outfit of jeans and a Doctor Who T-shirt Mitch had given her as a joke. Their mom loved that silly T-shirt and wore it all the time around the house. But was it a bit looser on her today than it had been a few weeks earlier?
“You have to take care of yourself, too, Mom. Between your part-time job and serving as full-time caregiver for Meemaw, you’re wearing yourself out. Not to mention the way you’ve been fretting about me since my surgery, despite my assurances that I’m healing rapidly. I wish you’d let us hire someone to help you.”
All three siblings had offered to pitch in to hire round-the-clock help for their mother and grandmother. Their late father had left his widow in decent financial shape, but she still worked ten hours a week keeping books for a little insurance office owned by a longtime friend. Having worked as a CPA her entire adult life, she missed having a job outside the home, she’d admitted. Meemaw’s health care plan paid for someone to come in a few hours a week—long enough for her daughter to escape to her job for those few hours—but anything more than that would have to come out-of-pocket, an expense frugal LaDonna wasn’t sure she could justify.
As she always did, their mother shook her head firmly. “All of you are still paying off medical school loans. You need your money for your own futures. Meemaw and I are getting along fine for now.”
“I paid off my loans last year,” Meagan reminded her. She made a healthy salary as a surgeon in the teaching hospital, as her mother was well aware. She could probably make even more in private practice, but she enjoyed teaching and she earned enough for her needs and then some.
“Yes, but now you have a house payment.”
“Which I can afford. It isn’t as if I bought a mansion.”
“I know, dear, but you should put some money away for your retirement. It gets here before you know it. And you should take some time to travel and have a little fun while you’re still young. You’ve worked so hard. You deserve a few luxuries. You all do. I’m so proud of my kids.”
As if on cue, there was a thump on the kitchen door. Without waiting for a response, Mitchell entered in his usual rush, tossing his keys on the kitchen counter with a noisy clatter and leaning over to kiss his mother with a resounding smack. “Hi, Mom. Coffee still hot? You saved me some cake, right?”