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I raised an eyebrow.

“Properly, this time,” he amended.

“Have you called her yet?”

“I thought we’d surprise her.”

“No. If it were just you and me, maybe—but we’re bringing Benny and Miss Claudia. She needs time to at the very least mentally prepare for a home invasion.”

“Fine, baby.” He swiped his phone up from the table. “I’ll call.”

That was easy. Score another point on the pro side for fake dating. No reason to argue .

“Ma,” he said and I looked over at him. He smiled at me and I had to admit, my heart might’ve skipped a beat. “Putting you on speaker. I want you to meet someone.” Then he pressed the phone screen and his mother’s voice filled the room.

“Hello?” she said.

“Hi, Mrs. Reece.”

“You want me to meet someone this early on a Saturday and she’s a woman? Son, I swear if you’re messing with me, I’ll take you out of my will.”

He chuckled. Gallows humor. I respected that. “Not messing, Ma. This is Bree. You met her?—”

“At Sumpter,” she said, cutting him off. “I knew you had feelings for her.”

The only feelings he had for me stirred in his pants, but this was the deal and with her buying it, Reece got to ease a little stress too. “We had it out and he admitted some things to me. Despite that little incident, you’ve raised a good son.”

“The best,” she gushed.

“So, Ma, we’re coming up today and staying until tomorrow night.”

The woman gasped. “Oh, Baker! This is amazing.”

“I wanted to surprise you, but Bree’s little guy and her surrogate grandmother are coming too.”

“This day just keeps getting better. I have to get going—so much to do.”

“Let the aides help you. I don’t want you tiring yourself out.”

“You worry too much. Love you,” she said before hanging up.

“Normally, I’d be so nervous that I’d feel like puking, but she sounded so welcoming, I don’t feel nervous at all.”

“Thank you. This means a lot. I know it’s part of the deal, but still… ”

I kissed him. I couldn’t help it. “Right. I have to shower her son off of me.”

“You can shower me off all you want. Won’t keep you from smelling me on you because I’ll be there for the foreseeable future.”

“You’re an idiot.” I picked up my pillow, tossing it at his head, and then ran into the bathroom. My muscles screamed at me. Some of them giving me what-for and some of them inviting me to let Reece do that to us again. I agreed with them all.

It hurt a bit but after a good scrub-down, I dried myself and dressed in a comfortable cotton jumpsuit with a faux wrap front blouse. Given we only planned to stay until tomorrow night, I packed enough for three days. I packed Benny for four. What? Little kids were prone to spilling.

“We have time to get you packed?” I asked.

No need. He chuckled as he walked over to the closet, pulling a leather overnight bag from the floor.

“ When ?”

“While you were at work. Claudia let me in.”

I stared at him. He brought the bag before asking me to visit his mom? What if we couldn’t have arranged it?

“Don’t look so constipated. I started sleeping here, thought I’d leave a bag.”

Okay, well that made perfect sense, but I hardly looked constipated. Maybe concerned. Just in case, I reached up to feel my face and— oof! I dropped the look right away. He threw his head back laughing and pulled me in for a kiss.

The travel arrangements, I left to Reece.

He told me he paid. For everything. I had to be okay with that.

By 10:00 a.m. , we were in the air. Benny had never been on a plane before.

It could’ve gone one of a few ways, but my boy watched out the window, smiling the whole time.

Reece got us on one of those little connector flights.

One and a half hours after taking off, we landed in Arlington, Virginia, where he rented us a SUV.

He’d even remembered to bring Benny’s car seat.

Arlington was a busy place. His mother lived in a town called Falls Church.

Just like any small city, it had an older section and a newer one.

Plenty of churches and bars. I imagined a little Baker Reece growing up here.

He pointed out the school where he’d played lacrosse.

“Wait— lacrosse ?” I asked. “You didn’t play hockey? ”

“We didn’t have a program at the school. I played in a club league. We were state champions. I liked lacrosse and it got me a lot of p—” He started to say pussy when I glared at him and I knew this when he corrected himself. “Dates.”

I just shook my head. Of course it did. A guy who looked like Baker Reece was bound to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Throw in a sweaty, physical game like lacrosse and it wasn’t a stretch to imagine teenage panties combusting as he’d walked by any given girl on any given day.

“Don’t worry. I was a gentleman. They got dates out of me, not just my dick.”

“ Reece ,” I admonished, glancing back at Miss Claudia who sat snickering.

“That’s another thing: you still call me Reece. You’re not my teammate—you’re my woman. Would it kill you to call me Baker?”

“It’s so foreign on my tongue, like I’m breaking some rule.”

“ Baby ,” he replied, laughing and God, I secretly loved it when he called me baby. Something about how he said it.

“Fine.” I harrumphed. “I’ll try to call you Baker.”

“I’d appreciate it.” He surprised me, pulling me close to his face by my chin and pecked a quick kiss.

A fun, playful Baker Reece. Now I bet that got him a lot of “dates.”

We continued through the city until hitting the streets with homes.

He turned down a couple of different streets before pulling into the driveway of a modest brick rambler.

It had a covered stoop with cement stairs and cute shutters on all three of the front-facing windows.

The home had window boxes for flowers under each window and an attached garage.

I bet the landscaping here was gorgeous in the spring and summer.

His mother stood in the open doorway. Reece—er, Baker—had his mother’s eyes.

She smiled so big. I remembered how she looked from Sumpter.

Her color was off compared to then. She looked sicker than two weeks ago.

I wanted to blame a runaway imagination for thinking that, but I had a terrible feeling that this was reality.

I half-expected Baker … His name was Baker and I needed to remember to call him that. Right, so I half-expected Baker to hop out of the truck and sprint over to her, but he surprised me by moving to the back seat of the rental to get Benny. I helped Miss Claudia out on my side.

We met at the back of the SUV to retrieve our bags. He grabbed his and Miss Claudia’s while I took the bag I’d packed for me and Benny. Then we approached the stoop as a group.

“You better get up here and give me a hug,” she said and when Baker—nope, can’t do it. When Reece skipped up steps to reach her, she shook her head, “I meant Bree. I always get to hug you.”

But I’ll note that while I walked up the stairs, she hugged her son anyway. “Hello, Mrs. Reece.”

“Please, it’s Charlotte. Actually, you can call me Char. All my friends call me Char, so I think I should extend that to my son’s significant other whom I hope will become a daughter-in-law.”

“ Ma !” Reece barked.

“What? A mother can hope. And I already know she’s a keeper. Women can suss out other good women.”

She looked at me as if she hoped I’d side with her, but that was one lie too many.

She’d probably ask us to get married so she could be at the wedding with my luck.

So I simply smiled at the woman and said, “Char, this is my son, Benny, and my neighbor, but she’s really been like a grandmother to me, so I’m going to introduce her from now on as my grandmother, Claudia. ”

Benny leaned against my leg with his arms wrapped around my knee, just taking all this in. As long as he had familiar people around, his people, he was a go-with-the-flow kind of kid.

Even in her weakened state, Char squatted down to Benny’s level. “Hi, Benny. My name is Char. I’m glad to meet you.”

He turned his face her way without looking her in the eyes. That was his hello.

Then, using the railing and one of Reece’s strong arms to help push up, she stood on slightly shaky legs.

Miss Claudia climbed to one step below Reece and me on the stoop to shake Char’s hand. “You have a lovely home,” Miss Claudia said.

“Thank you. Please, everyone, come in.” She held the door open wide enough for people and bags.

The front door led right into a living room.

“This is the living room,” she said. “It leads to the kitchen and the den, where we keep the television. We have three bedrooms, but the den has sliding doors to turn it into another room. The sofa converts into a comfortable bed. I tried it out to make sure. Do you think Benny would be comfortable on a twin air mattress? I don’t have a toddler bed. ”

“He’ll be fine. We’ll figure it all out.” Then I turned to Reece. “Let’s put Miss Claudia in a bedroom. Benny and I can take the den.”

“You’re not sleeping in the den.”

“So you’re taking the den?” I asked because this struck me as odd. I figured he’d want to sleep in the bed he always slept in when he visited.

“No. But my mattress here is better than the sofa. I don’t want to sleep there.”

“You won’t.”

“Babe, I will. You’re in the bed, I’m in the bed.”

“This is a new environment. Benny will need some familiarity to sleep.” What I didn’t want to say in front of his mother was that I felt uncomfortable with Benny seeing Reece sleeping in the same bed as me. It may get confusing for him just having Reece around all the time.

“We can put the air mattress up in my room,” said Claudia. “He’s comfortable with me.”

“It’s not fair to put that on you.”

“Please, if I’m your grandmother, then let me spoil my great-grandson like a grandmother should. That includes getting to read him books before he falls asleep—and before you say anything, I brought them from home in my bag.”