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nose and daring me to pursue further clarification.
    “Yes, it sounds very endearing.” I shoved another spoonful of ice cream into my mouth to keep from saying anything else. It didn’t work. “Tell me, how did you acquire such a charming nickname?”
    “That is none of your business.” She spun around on her heel and busied herself by putting away what remained of the ice cream.
    Aunt Deb, who had been watching and listening, suddenly chimed in, “I’ll tell you.”
    Joss glared at her, looking back over her shoulder, but her aunt wasn’t fazed by it in the least.
    “What? It’s my story anyway.” Deb pulled up a stool beside me and settled in. “See all the crap she has around here? Not a damn thing is being used as it was intended. Well, it’s always been this way. Even as a kid you’d find her sitting in her room playing with the most random things. One time I walked in and found her wearing my bra on her head as a helmet, along with goggles she’d made by cutting the bottoms off of two plastic cups, using a bread tie for a nose piece and tying the whole thing around her head with some old Christmas ribbon she’d found stashed in a drawer of lost things. She was dressed from head to toe in a pair of her father’s old military coveralls and sitting in the center of an empty laundry basket while holding a candelabra in her lap, which naturally she was using as a tiller to steer her imaginary airplane.” She paused momentarily, like she was vividly remembering the view, and then continued, “Wacko-doodle was just the nicest thing I could think of when I saw her that day.”
    Since Deb was cracking up, I made no efforts to hide my reaction this time around. The two of us were laughing loudly, with Wyatt giggling on pure principal, while Joss proceeded to ignore us.
    “You guys about done yet?” she scowled.
    “Oh, Doodle, come on, don’t be such a sourpuss.” Deb slid from her seat and went to lay a kiss on Joss’s cheek, still chuckling to herself.
    “Yeah, Doodle.” I knew I was pushing my luck. “It’s not like we’re laughing at you.”
    “It’s not? It kind of feels like you are.”
    “Hm. Maybe we are then.” Slowly I was starting to reign myself in again.
    “Mommy-doodle.” Wyatt giggled, covering his mouth with his little hands.
    Even Joss burst out laughing after that.

Chapter Four
    “I t was weird, right?” I cleared the last of the dishes. Derek had only just left. Somehow ice cream had led to a game of Go Fish which inevitably had brought on a rematch...and another. Before we knew it, dinner time had rolled around and Wyatt had invited him to stay. I’m sure he’d only said yes for the sake of my kid. Why else would a single, attractive thirty-something year old man stick around on a Saturday night for a meal of mac ‘n cheese with corn on the cob? Surely he had more exciting things on his agenda than that.
    “What was weird?” Aunt Deb looked over from where she was bent down in front of the open dishwasher, filling it with the night’s plates and silverware.
    “Derek. Being here. All fucking day.” I felt my eyes go wide. I was being dramatic. Knowing it and stopping it were two completely different things though.
    She shrugged. “I didn’t think it was weird at all. In fact, I thought it felt completely normal. This is what it’s supposed to feel like.”
    I stopped in place. “What does that mean?”
    “It means if, someday, you happen to choose to give up on this crazy, warped idea that you have to do everything yourself, and perhaps even go so far as to get married – bear with me here, I know it’s a stretch and strictly hypothetical – then this would be exactly what life would be like. It would be normal. You just think it’s weird because your life isn’t the norm.”
    I clenched my jaw and fought the urge to roll my eyes back into my skull. “Pretty sure I’m not the only single mom out there.”
    Aunt Deb placed the last plate into the bottom