“Did you know,” Barbara began, breaking into his thoughts, “that one of my most cherished memories is the day you spoke your first word?”
Mark laughed, imagining the worst. “What did I say?”
His mother smiled with pride. “You said, ‘Mama.’”
“I’m sure Matt said the same thing,” he told her with a shrug. “No big deal.”
“It was a big deal, because it came from my first baby boy, One who grew to possess all of the same wonderful qualities I adored in his father.”
Barbara fixed her son with a firm, motherly glare.
“And your brother’s first word was, ‘no!’”
That elicited a bark of laughter from Mark. The last traces of anxiety vanished and he at last felt comfortable in his mother’s presence.
Barbara sat up straight and searched the room for a clock. “I should go soon. I don’t want to in
