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“What?” I said, stalling for time. “What next step?”

“Maria and I were thinking about having a dinner party at our house. She finally ditched that tool Scott and is dating this new guy John who seems frighteningly normal. We thought we could invite some of our friends, and then you and John could meet our everybody.”

He pinned me with an intense look. “Then afterward, you could spend the night with me.”

“Are you asking me to have a sleepover?” I teased.

“I am.”

“What about your sister? Isn’t her room across the hall from yours?”

“She already said she’d go to her boyfriend’s so we could have some privacy.”

“And where will your boys be during this hypothetical sleepover?”

“Staying at their grandparents. Maybe yours can do the same?”

I shook my head. “I never ask my parents to help with the boys. Ever.”

“Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“There is. When I divorced my ex-husband, they told me in no uncertain terms that I was an idiot, and a little cheating wasn’t something to break up a family for. They tried to convince me to stay with Brad, and when I refused, they said I’d better not ever ask them for anything since I was making a terrible mistake. I’ve never asked them for a damn thing since then, even when they offer to help, I tell them no.”

“Wow, that’s...I honestly don’t know what to say about that, Lil, other than I’m sorry that happened.”

I frowned pensively into my beer, thinking about how betrayed I’d felt by my parents. I rarely spoke to them, and I refused to spend holidays with them. I allowed the boys to have whatever level of relationship they felt comfortable with having, but even though they didn’t know why we’d had a falling out, they’d made it clear to my parents that they were on my side.

All three of my brothers had moved away by the time I got divorced, and while I’d always been close with Lewis and his wife Sue, they didn’t live close enough for me to call on them for last minute favors.

Thank God I’d had Becky when the boys were younger. She was the one person I could always count on. It broke my heart when she moved away to Houston a few years ago. She’d moved away for a man, and while that didn’t last, she’d fallen in love with the city and decided to stay. We still talked every day though.

“Is there anyone else who could keep an eye on things for you?” he asked hopefully.

I shifted through my mental rolodex. The truth was there were a bunch of people who owed me favors. Maybe just this once I could call them in.

“I might could find someone,” I said.

Becky would probably come from Houston if I asked, or maybe George and Cassie could hang out with them.

Martin’s face broke out in a big smile. “So, you’ll come to the party, meet my friends, and then spend the night with me?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“You know what comes next, don’t you?” he asked. “We need to meet each other’s kids. And introduce them to each other.”

That had the potential to go very badly.

“Let’s take one thing at a time, okay?” I suggested.

A few days later Luke knocked on the door to my bedroom where I was holed up texting with Martin like a smitten teenager.

“You got a minute, Mama?”

“Of course,” I said, waving him in and dropping my phone into the drawer of my nightstand.

Luke sat on the other end of the bed and gave me a long look. He was looking so grown up, more like a man than the boy he used to be. It made my heart ache.

“Is it getting’ serious?”