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she’s here keeping me company when you’re at home with your husband and baby.”
    Daphne looked at her mother through wounded eyes.
    â€œNow, I’m not trying to make you feel guilty,” Caroline hastily added. “I just wanted to remind you how things are.”
    â€œPersonally, I think it’s great that her kids are doing so well,” Alicia said. “Martha wants them to do better than she and Marvin did, and it looks like they’re on their way. I’m glad for her.” Their son was a track star who also played basketball, and their daughter a talented gymnast. Both attended the local high school.
    â€œBoth of them will probably get scholarships,” Caroline observed, adding, “Martha is so proud.”
    Alicia sat in one of the twin rocking chairs that faced each other, to the sides and slightly in front of the love seat. “It’s good to be here.”
    â€œHow was the party?” Caroline asked.
    â€œIt went well.”
    Daphne grunted. “Same old faces. I don’t see the big deal.”
    â€œIt isn’t a big deal.” Unless you want to make it one . “I don’t get bored with my friends. Like Mom just said, it means something to have a history together. And it just so happens there was a new face in attendance. Rhonda Robinson brought along someone new. A college buddy of Pete’s.”
    â€œAnd?” Caroline prompted, leaning forward eagerly.
    â€œHe seemed very nice, that’s all.”
    â€œOh, no dear. That’s definitely not all.”
    Alicia felt grateful that Martha appeared at that moment, balancing a tray that held three mugs. “Hot chocolate,” she announced.
    â€œHow thoughtful of you, Martha,” Caroline said.
    â€œYes, Martha, thank you,” Daphne echoed, a little too graciously to be real. Even Martha appeared startled by the praise, which Alicia knew had been motivated by Daphne’s desire to please their mother more than any sense of doing the right thing.
    Martha set the mugs on coasters on the dark cherry wood coffee table. “Can I get you ladies anything else?” When all three women shook their heads, she took the tray and left the room.
    Alicia hoped the conversation wouldn’t return to Jack Devlin. She didn’t even know why she’d brought him up in the first place.
    Probably because you keep thinking about him . Even now, just thinking of him made her want to check her cell phone, make sure it was working properly. Had he forgotten her number? She certainly hoped not. She knew she’d brazenly tempted fate by giving him her number when he had nothing to take it down with. She’d never be so rash if he had no other way to contact her, but all he had to do if he forgot was to call Rhonda and get it from her.
    She noticed an anxious look on her mother’s face and knew what put it there. That doggone Daphne, always having something negative to say. Commenting that her friendliness with Martha was inappropriate had been uncalled for. Why couldn’t she be more considerate? Their mother was dying. She certainly deserved to have her last days filled with peace.
    Therein lay part of the problem. While Alicia had accepted the inevitable, Daphne held on to the belief that their mother would recover. But Caroline’s fate had been sealed when, at the age of seven, she contracted the rheumatic fever that damaged her heart valves. Alicia felt that Caroline feared the two girls would go their separate ways after she was gone. Six years apart, Alicia and Daphne had bickered their whole lives. Their father Fletcher had already passed on, and with both parents gone there would be nothing to hold Alicia and Daphne together.
    Already their lives had gone in different directions. While Alicia still enjoyed her independence in her mid-thirties, Daphne took the traditional route, marrying her college sweetheart, Todd Scott, six months after her graduation. She