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“You’re still talking to Martin’s boys?” I asked in surprise.

“Yep, and they are havin’ an intervention of their own at this very minute.”

My eyes flew to my youngest. “Why?”

“Cuz those guys are havin’ the same problem with their daddy as we’re having with you, Mama.”

“Martin is a good guy, Mama,” Luke inserted. “He treated you like a lady and defended you to Grandma.”

“I know honey, but it’s complicated. Sometimes you can like someone...”

“Love someone,” Becky corrected.

“Sometimes you can love someone,” I amended, “but it’s just not the right time to be together.”

“When is the right time?” Becky asked. “The boys here are mostly grown up. They don’t need you to be home with them all the time or show up at every single sporting event, especially now that Luke and Lincoln can drive.”

I looked around at the assembled faces at the table. “I’m really fine,” I reiterated. I didn’t know what else to say to make them feel better.

Leo leaned forward and grabbed my hand across the table. “I know better’n anyone in this room what it’s like to find true love and then lose it. The angels took my Anna from me, and I didn’t have a choice but to say goodbye.”

His voice cracked as he continued, “You have a choice. Don’t throw away love with a good man just because it’s complicated to be together.”

I jumped as I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket.

“Who’s texting me?” I mused. “Almost everyone I know is right here.”

My heart started pounding when I saw Martin’s name on the screen. I swiped the screen and pulled up his message:

Weird question, but by any chance are you currently having an intervention?

Martin

My boys were circled around me in the living room, my sister and her boyfriend flanking them on either side.

“What if we all moved in with Lillian?” Charlie asked. “She’s really cool for a girl. I can share a room with Logan and be his best friend.”

Ever since that first day we got the kids together at Dave and Buster’s, Charlie had a serious case of hero worship going on with Lillian’s youngest. I was pretty sure it had something to do with Logan showing him how to beat his older brothers in one of the fantasy video games they all played. Mark and Karl were still trying to figure out that trick.

“Lillian’s house isn’t big enough for all of us to move in there,” I answered.

“Then we’ll just buy a new house,” Mark said, as if it was that easy.

“If we moved to Kenilworth with the Wainwrights, y’all wouldn’t be able to go to school here, you know. You’d have to leave all your friends and start fresh there.”

“Daaad,” Mark drew the word out to convey what an idiot I was. “First of all, there’s technology now, you know, like cell phones and Facetime. Also, a lot of my friends are goin’ to the other school, so I’m gonna need to make some new friends anyway.”

We’d recently discovered that we were right over the boundary line for the junior high district, leaving my son separated from a good chunk of his sixth grade class.

“I don’t mind changing’ schools if I get to hang out with Logan and Luke and Linc,” Charlie added. Karl and Mark nodded in agreement.

“But what about Aunt Maria?” I asked.

My sister rolled her eyes. When the intervention started, I assumed that she was the culprit, but then the boys explained that this had been their brilliant idea.

“You know I’ve been planning to move in with John anyway, and it’s not like I can’t drive over to Kenilworth to see you there.”

“And you only have to go into your office once a week,” Mark reminded me. “The rest of the time you’re in the field or working’ from home, so it won’t be no problem for you to move either, Dad.”