is is getting out of hand.”

“Oh?” I blinked. “You didn’t say that when Camille gave you that free haircut.”

Linda stood abruptly.

“Alright, enough!

I think we’ve had plenty of… experiments for today.”

I held up the screen which is a clear photo of Linda’s open laptop.

Her notebook app was open, no password, no screen lock. Apparently, she still didn’t believe in such modern sorcery as privacy settings.

Lucky me!

And there it was. A neat little chart titled: “Potential matches for Ross.”

A hand-written chart with Camille, Tessa, and Sofia’s names.

Strengths. Weaknesses. Notes like “good with kids” and “naturally flirtatious.”

Ross stared at the page like it was written in another language.

“Mom… what the hell is this?”

Linda blushed, but only for a second.

“It’s just… a backup plan, sweetheart.”

“A backup plan?!”

“Okay.

That’s it. Everyone out. Girls, I’m sorry, but this was… way too much.

Guys — thanks for the help, really, but…”

Dean smiled.

“No hard feelings, man. She’s worth combating.”

Linda packed her tote bag in frosty silence.

When the house was finally quiet, Ross sat down on the couch and exhaled hard, like he’d just completed running a marathon he didn’t train for. I joined him.

“I’m sorry, Em.”

“For what?”

“For letting Mom steamroll in here like that.

For not noticing how much you’ve been doing. For being so… distracted. And for not doing what I should’ve been doing — fixing stuff, supporting you, telling you how amazing you are.”

“You forgot ‘not complimenting me’ in that list.”

“Apology accepted.”

“You were carrying everything.

I just didn’t want to admit it.”

“Well,” I said, leaning back, “now that we’ve both confessed our sins… there’s good news.”

“Yeah?”

“I got the promotion.”

“Seriously? Wow, honey! I am so proud of you!”