The Littlest Boss. Janet Nye Lee

above him. “Yeah, my parents were addicts. Back and forth with sobriety for years, but when I was about six months old, it got really bad and my grandmother took me away from them.”

      “One of them come back?”

      It was said with such a knowing, yet compassionate, tone that he looked up at her. “Yeah. My mother.”

      Molly nodded. “Time for amends?”

      He shrugged and pulled loose the drain trap. “Here’s your problem,” he said as he held out a small chunk of plastic. He put it on the counter above him and scooped up the screws. “I guess that’s what she wants. She gave my name and phone number to some lady who says she’s her sponsor. I’m guessing she called to say I should let my mother to talk to me. I just don’t know.”

      There was a long silence as he put the drain trap back together. As he was removing kittens from the inside, Molly stood from where she’d been sitting at the dining room table. “Come sit in the living room with me.”

      After disposing of the bit of plastic and washing his hands, he settled down on the opposite end of the sofa from Molly. She turned toward him with her hands clasped. “My former husband was an alcoholic.”

      He blinked. He’d thought she was a widow. “Oh,” he said slowly.

      “He would get sober for a year, slip up, drink for a year or two. It was a never-ending cycle. After about twenty years, we separated. I couldn’t do it anymore. It’s a horrible disease but you can’t help someone who doesn’t want help.”