“All you can do is focus on right now and where you want to go from here.”

She swallows and looks up at the guys. “Would it make you feel better if I went home with you?”

“Yes,” they both reply immediately.

“I have a guest suite,” Chase says, and squats in front of his mother, taking her hands in his. “You can stay with me for as long as you want.”

“Okay.” She nods and looks around as if she’s a bit lost. “I guess I’ll need to pack a bag.”

We all help her pack up about a week’s worth of clothes, some toiletries, and the book she’s been reading from the library, and it’s not long before she’s locking the front door and following Chase to his car.

Before she gets in, she turns to Mac and hugs him tightly. “Thank you so much.”

“I love you, Mama.”

“I love you too.” She pats his cheek and smiles up at him. “You’re a good boy.”

Chase laughs good-naturedly. “It’s an act, Mom.”

“He is a good boy,” she says as she lowers herself into Chase’s car and slams the door closed, still talking as they drive away.

Wordlessly, Mac takes my hand and leads me to his car. We drive back to our building in silence. I don’t know what he’s thinking, but I’m just plain tired. This has been an emotional evening.

He walks me to my door, and when he would walk away, I take his hand and lead him inside.

“Come here.” My voice is soft. The room is dark, except for the light coming through my windows, and I lead him to my chair. He sits, and I sit on the coffee table in front of him, my hands on his thighs, watching him closely. “Talk to me.”

He shakes his head and wipes his hands over his face, then lets out a long, hard sigh. “I can’t believe you talked her into going with Chase.”

“I think she wanted to all along, she just needed to be given permission, and the reassurance that it didn’t mean it was forever.”

“Thank you.” He scoops me into his lap and buries his face in my neck. His voice is raw, his hands grip me tightly, as if he never wants to let go. “I don’t know how to thank you for this.”

“Mac,” I reply, and tip his face back so I can look him in the eyes. “This is what you do for someone when you care deeply and are in a relationship with them.”

He stills for a moment, blinks twice, as if he’s processing that statement, then pulls me in for a tight hug. I don’t know if I’ve just scared him off with the relationship comment, but damn it, it’s true. We’ve been seeing each other for weeks, almost every day. He is the best part of my day, and if that alone isn’t the definition of a relationship, I don’t know what is.

And I’m ninety-nine point seven percent sure I’ve fallen in love with him. It scares the ever-loving fuck out of me, and I will not say it to him yet, but it’s real and it’s there. We have all the time in the world to figure it out.

“Mac?”

“Hmm?”

“She’s going to be okay. It’s going to take time, but she will come out of this better than before.”

“I hope so. She used to be so strong, so full of life.” He shakes his head. “It’s like the light inside her just went out.”

“It’s been a tough ten years,” I remind him. “How long have you been giving her money?”

“She started asking about five years ago,” he replies. “Chase and I used to own the Bar None chains.”

“I love those,” I reply happily, shocked that he and his brother used to own them.

“Thank you. We’ve done well for a while. About two years ago, we sold the bars to a company that wanted to expand them, and paid us handsomely to do so. After that happened, Mom started coming to us more often asking for help.

“It’s been in the past year or so that we’ve paid all their bills. Chase was giving Mom a little cash here and there so she could put gas in the car, get her hair done, things like that. But Dad found it and started stealing it. So the cash stopped.”

“His illness is severe,” I reply. “Of course you know that.”

“He refuses help. If he’d swallow his pride and get some help, he could start selling homes again. The market has bounced back now, and he’d make a good living, but he’s caught in this horrible cycle.”

“He has an addiction,” I reply simply. “It’s not as easy as deciding to talk to a counselor and stopping. It’s as bad as if he was an alcoholic, or a drug user. He needs to go to treatment.”

“Chase and I would pay for it in a heartbeat.”

“It’s not the paying for it. Your dad has to decide that he wants to get better. Until that happens, he won’t change.”

“She’s not going back to him, not like that.”

I smile and drag my fingertips down his cheek. “This has to be so hard on you, to watch a woman that you love choose to be in a relationship with a man so broken. You can’t decide any of this for her.”

“And that makes me crazy,” he replies, smiling ruefully. “But you’ve helped more than you can possibly imagine.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

“You’re amazing, Kat, and I can’t tell you how thankful I am that you decided to brave that plane ride to California. I can’t imagine my life without you, and I don’t want to.”