Free Lost Bird by Tymber Dalton Page A

going over to Aunt Tammy’s. I’m on my way home to get Oscar, but thanks for the offer.”
    His face clouded. “How is she?”
    Aunt Tammy was a touchy subject around his mom, which was why John was glad she’d gotten delayed on her way home from work. She still taught English at a high school in Spring Hill. “She’s okay. Lonely, I think. She has me and Oscar over at least once a week.”
    His dad nodded as he stirred a pot full of what looked like a cheesy sauce of some sort. “That’s nice.”
    “Don’t worry, I haven’t told Mom.”
    His mom felt his father’s aunt should sell her property and move into an assisted living facility. She’d dealt with being a caretaker to her own mother, who’d had Alzheimer’s, and refused to do it again for another elderly relative, considering the stress she’d been under after her husband’s heart attack. She had limited herself to taking care of her husband, and that was it.
    “You know she loves Aunt Tammy,” his dad said, “but you can see her point of view.”
    “I can see it, but I don’t agree with it. Aunt Tammy is still capable of living alone. Her tax prep was better than mine.”
    “I know that, and you know that. But I can’t blame her, either. It was hard enough on her getting me through my cardiac rehab. She still panics if I so much as cough. I don’t want her stressed out any more than need be.”
    Every time John mentioned his aunt around his mom, his mom went off on a more than energetic tirade of how the woman belonged somewhere that could take care of her, and how she didn’t want to be responsible for having to deal with the fallout should the elderly woman fall or otherwise become incapacitated before that time.
    It did no good to tell his mom that his aunt had already revealed her will and her wishes, and that he himself had volunteered to help her out if and when that day arrived.
    It would only make his mom rail even harder against it, not wanting him saddled with caring for his elderly grandaunt.
    John leaned against the counter. “No one’s going to stress her out except herself,” John said. “She does a dang good job of that.”
    “She was talking about wanting to look at condos again.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah. I did put my foot down, believe it or not.” He smiled. “I’m not a complete wuss when it comes to your mother. I’m not nearly ready to give up my home or my privacy just yet. I can still afford a lawn guy to come in and take care of the yard. She’s just a worrywart.”
    True, but he saw his mom’s side of that argument. His father had coded twice on the ambulance ride to the hospital after his heart attack. Fortunately, it’d happened at the shop, in the office, with plenty of people to see it happen and jump into action to get him help.
    Had it happened five minutes later, when he would have been behind the wheel of a work truck and on his way to a job, it could have been fatal. Not only for him, but for anyone he might have accidentally injured.
    “So nothing interesting happening, huh?” his dad asked.
    John thought about the postponed investigation, and the way his thoughts kept turning to Sachi Wolowitz. “Nope. Not really.”
    “I heard Karen was seen out and about.”
    John groaned. “I know. Oscar already heard.”
    “How’s he doing?”
    “Better than he was.” He glanced out the window, where he saw his mom’s car pull into the driveway. “Hanging in there. Just like me.”
    “You boys are young. You’ll find the right women and be fine. It just takes time.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    He managed to get out of there after helping his mom unload her groceries. As he headed back to their dinky duplex apartment, John once again thought about accepting Aunt Tammy’s offer of living at her house. It would mean catching a ration of shit from his mom about it.
    Then again, he was thirty-two.
    Maybe it’s time to make a few decisions on my own instead of simply reacting to the punches life