It had been Heather who’d initiated the weekly routine years ago when she’d gone away to college. She’d insisted that it was for her own sake—that she was missing being away from home. But she suspected her mother knew the truth—that Heather’s weekly check-ins had been more for her mom’s sake than for hers. Not that Joan Fowler was the clingy type. Far from it, in fact. Heather had grown up with her mother working two, sometimes three jobs, which meant they’d gotten used to being apart. Heck, Heather’s junior year of high school, her mom had taken the night shift at a twenty-four-hour diner, and it had seemed like they’d gone an entire year without seeing each other. But college had been different. Although Michigan State was only an hour’s drive from her hometown, the distance meant Heather hadn’t been able to ensure her mom had healthy groceries stocked. Hadn’t been there to move her mom’s work uniform to the dryer before it started to smell mildewy.
