“When do the stitches come out?” I asked, taking a seat beside her.
“Tuesday.”
“Who takes you to the doctor?”
“Uber.”
That broke my heart. “Not a friend? Someone from work?”
“The drivers are great,” she challenged.
But not family,I might have said if she hadn’t been daring me to argue. But I had won on the walker; I could let her win here. If this was a truce, I wasn’t messing with it.
From the counter, Edward said, “Your friends brought enough food to feed an army, Margaret, but it’s early for lunch. Did you have breakfast?”
She shot him a nervous glance but didn’t answer.
Taking that as ano,he said, “You have eggs. I could scramble some.”
Looking at me again, she screwed up her face. “Didn’t you get divorced?”
“Yes,” I said. “I moved away. He followed.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“It was in the works for two years,” Edward put in.
“Unknown to me.”
“Unknown?” Mom asked me.
“She would have saidno,” Edward said from behind. “Mackenzie, does your mother eat eggs?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Yes,” Margaret said and aimed her voice at Edward. “You don’t really need to do that.”
“I do.”
She looked like she wanted to object but was at a loss for how. So again, she conceded. “Eggs. Yes. Thank you.” Back to me, sotto voce, she said, “I didn’t know he could cook.”
“Neither did I.”
“Is it safe?”
I smiled. “What he cooks? We’ll soon find out.”
I was trying to lighten things up, but my mother seemed too burdened for that. She looked as if she would have run in a split second if her hip had allowed it.
And me? For those times during the drive when I would have turned back, I didn’t consider it now. I was exactly where I wanted to be. Thatsaid, it was a precarious spot. I didn’t know what she was thinking; our landscape had changed. And then there was Edward, who, since showing up last night, was doing everything right, absolutely everything. I wasn’t sure what to do with him either.
Mom’s mind seemed to shift, eyes suddenly clinging to me in ways that had nothing to do with food. There was something in them that was so strong, so wanting—but gone as quickly as I identified it, so that I was left to wonder if I had simply imagined what I wanted to see.
I might have asked, but didn’t dare. Feelings were crucial. We had to talk about them, but right now facts were safer. They were also major, given her health.
“How’s your doctor?” I asked her as Edward cracked eggs into a bowl.
