Page 125 of Half Baked

“I know. You’re right. I’m sorry.” Then I narrowed my eyes. “What are you doing back so early?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked defensively. “I told you I was coming back today.”

“You said you were coming backtonight. You’re about six hours early. What happened?”

Exasperation spread across her face. “Lance is what happened.”

I shook my head. “What doesthatmean?”

She ran a hand over her head in frustration. “I was trying to have fun with my friends, hanging out a bar, and one of them was trying to set me up with a really cute guy. All I could think about was Lance.” She grunted in frustration.

My eyes went wide. “Oh.”

“What if heisthe one?” she asked with tears in her eyes.

I picked up her hand and squeezed. “Is that bad if heis?”

“I’m scared, Mads.”

“And what about that scares you?”

“Now you sound like a shrink,” she teased, then turned serious. “What if I screw it up? What if heisthe one, and I get itchy feet to move on to the next guy?”

“Well,” I said, “if that happens, then he isn’t really the one, now is he?”

She sat back into the sofa and sighed. “Being a grownup sucks.”

I sat back with her. “Tell me about it. I still haven’t decided what to do about Aunt Deidre. I need to talk to the director of St. Vincent’s. I don’t have much more time to decide before they move onto the next person on the list.”

“Do you really want to put her in a residential care center that had a murderer as an employee?” she asked in disbelief.

“The orderly wasn’t a murderer. He only aided and abetted.”

“Well, there you go,” she said as though I’d said the most logical thing in the world.

We were silent for several long seconds.

“She could just keep living here,” she said. “Then you don’t have to sell Cabbage Rose House and we can all keep living here together.”

“Eventually she’ll have to go somewhere else.”

“Exactly.Eventually. But for now, let’s just hire someone to help at night.” She grinned. “And then you’ll be able to have an actual social life.”

I snorted. “A social life.”

“It wouldn’t hurt totryto have one,” she said with a shrug.

“We could always move to Chattanooga like you’d mentioned,” I said. “They have multiple care centers there.”

“Yeah, I know, and while I was the one to suggest it, now I’m not so sure.”

“Really?Why?” I asked with mock innocence.

“Do you want me to say it?” she demanded then released a heavy sigh. “Because I don’t want to leave Cockamamie, and neither do you.”

“I don’t,” I admitted. “And neither does Noah.”

“Speaking of leaving Cockamamie, did you see the Chattanooga newspaper article about Noah today?”

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