Chapter 104

• "Sorry to interrupt, ladies," he said as he straightened and walked into the room. "Mrs. Brown, you're looking very well."
• "I, uh. Well, um, thank you," Lalaine's mother stuttered, apparently picturing Lalaine's boyfriend naked, which was oh so Jerry Springer of her.
• When Lalaine had first seen her mother in the recovery room ten days earlier, Nick had been right by her side, and she remembered the way her mother's jaw had nearly dropped to the floor and how she repeatedly rubbed her eyes as if she couldn't possibly have been seeing what she was seeing. She beamed like the mother of a beauty pageant contestant who'd mopped the floor with all those other wanna-bes. Not that Lalaine's mother had ever treated her that way, but she knew who Nick Crawford was, and she was stoked that her baby girl was dating him.