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“Sure. Grab on.” They had this move down, too. He lifted and Luke pushed and Rory was pleased to note that moving Luke was getting easier every day as Luke got stronger.

Hell, lots of times Luke used his crutches here at the house. He didn’t seem to mind Rory seeing him stumble. In fact, he often showed off new physical skills to Rory first.

Rory loved that, deep down and big. Huge.

He tossed Luke a dishrag, then put everything in the dryer, turned on the coffeemaker and pulled out cups.

Luke was soon back in his chair and moving around the kitchen, pulling stuff out of the fridge to help Rory start lunch.

Then Mrs. LeBlanc came in and he started pouring coffee, trying not to flutter.

“This is a very comfy robe,” she said, then sank down at his table. “Cream and sugar, please.”

“Yes, ma’am. Would you like cocoa in it?” How can I apologize?

“I love that idea.” She laughed and clapped her hands, her wet hair all wrapped up in a towel. This had to be the weirdest ‘parent of your lover’ lunch ever. “Excellent. I have to tell you, I don’t usually start lunches with a nascent gunfight. I prefer guacamole.”

“Well, with arepas I usually start with albondigas. They’re in the Crock-Pot, honey. There’s avocado sauce, which is why I thought of it.” He smiled at her. “I’m so sorry, ma’am.”

“Call me Bonnie.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He fixed her coffee and handed it over, then did the same with Luke’s.

“Thanks,” Luke said. He wheeled over to the Crock-Pot and filled a bowl with meatballs, then grabbed all the condiments for them, looking right at home.

Miss Bonnie watched her boy like a hawk, then Rory swore he could see her relax.

He hoped that was good. He really did. They jostled each other to get the arepa maker set up, and he had to fling a tiny blob of cornmeal at Luke, hitting him in the nose.

“I’m going to beat you, babe. I swear to God.” Luke scowled.

Miss Bonnie started cackling, just busting out with it.

“Yeah, yeah, promises.” He winked at Luke’s mom. “He’s so tough.”

“He’s a stud.”

Rory knew that. “He is. I’m damn fond. ”

“Good. Good.” She sighed. “Now, if I could just find a nice boy for Matthew.”

“Leave Matty alone, Momma. He’s fine.”

Rory knew better than to get into that. Matt LeBlanc had threatened to castrate him when he suggested setting Matt up with one of his friends in Austin. The man had some issues, and it wasn’t up to him to solve them.

All he could do was set a good example with Luke, right?

Soon the kitchen smelled like cornmeal cakes and pork roast and they were all nipping up meatballs.

“You have a lovely house, Rory. It’s so homey and warm.”

“It’s a little goofy, but I love it.”

“I like it.” Bonnie shot Luke a fond smile. “Luke seems to like it, too.”

“Pushing,” Luke murmured while pulling arepas out of the machine.

“ Moi ?” Bonnie popped another meatball in her mouth. She’d already asked for the recipe, so that was excellent progress.

Rory split arepas and Luke filled them. They served them with the pickled onions and cilantro rice and Miss Bonnie laughed her happy trill of a laugh again.

“Look at that!” she said. “So pretty. Luke on KP duty. I love it.”

“Momma, be nice or I’ll not let Rory invite you over again.”

“Now, honey. She did show up in a bad situation. I think we have to make amends.”

“Don’t give her an inch—she’ll take a mile.” The fond look Luke shot his momma spoke volumes about the fact that he was joking.

His mom would adore Bonnie.

Was he thinking of introducing his mom to Luke’s? Holy shit .

Luke grabbed his hand. “You okay?”

“Glorious.” He’d just keep that to himself now, wouldn’t he?

“Cool.” Luke dug into his food, humming.

The arepas were good, spicy and the pickled onions? Hell yeah. Given that Luke’s momma was in a robe and Luke was in sweats, he thought it was a fab way to have lunch.

They all got to giggling over Luke when he lost an onion and had to dig it out of his shirt. The coffee helped warm everyone, and the dryer thumped away, providing background noise.

“I’m full unto death,” Miz Bonnie said finally, patting her belly. “Someone refill my coffee and give me the tour. Also, I need to meet that cat.”

“Which one?” he teased. “I locked them in the office. I wasn’t sure how you felt about kitties.”

“The one who’s yowling like he’s dying.”

“She, Momma. She’s amazing.” Luke had taken to his cats like a house afire.

“That would be Miss Maleficent. She hates missing out. Come on and I’ll introduce you. She thinks Luke was invented just for her.” He led her through the front room and opened the door to the game-slash-media room for her to see. “We spend a lot of time in here.”

“Do you? It’s amazing!”

“We’ll have to watch something. It’s very comfortable.” They did the rest of the house—up to and including the bathroom of joy with its rain bath and the sauna. Then he opened the door to the office, the cats right there in a row.

“Goodness, look at them!”

The Persians all sat staring, offended. Maleficent stalked over to sniff Miz Bonnie’s sock, then leaped into Luke’s lap to yowl at him accusingly.

“I know, baby girl. He’s a bastard, locking you in. ”

Rory hooted. “She sure thinks so. Who wants a treat?”

He found the little bag of kitty treats and passed them out to Luke and Bonnie. Merida decided that Bonnie was going to be her best friend, Ariel and Esme hid behind him while Maleficent told Luke, in no uncertain terms, that he was in trouble.

God, he was happy.

Bonnie winked at him, and he thought he’d also made a friend. He liked her a lot, not least because he could see where Luke’s resilience and humor came from.

“Y’all want to watch a movie? We have a sh-lot of choices.”

“How long has it been since I just got to sit and watch a movie?” Miss Bonnie asked. “Yes, please. Let me text your daddy, Luke, and tell him I’m having so much fun I’ll stay a while.”

“Sounds good. I’ll pick a movie and Rory can refill coffees?”

He nodded. That plan worked. Luke would know what his Momma liked to watch and the cats were keeping Miss Bonnie busy.

That way he could toss the dishes in the dishwasher, too, keep things neat. Was that too much? Worrying about the dishes?

‘Clean as you go’ , his mom would tell him. He would do the dishes.

Then he would take coffees in and watch a movie with Luke and Bonnie and the cats. Right on.

Not weird. Not weird at all.

Especially when you thought about how the day had started…