When I woke up the next morning, I didn’t feel very rested at all. I assumed it was from all the tossing and turning throughout the night, as well as the initial trouble I’d had getting to sleep. After exercising early in the morning for so many years, my body seemed to be hard-wired to wake up at a little past six every day, even in my retirement. I no longer had a regular exercise routine, although I did try to walk on the treadmill at least every few days. Alice always grumbled at me for getting up so early when she declared that there was absolutely no point to doing so. She’d eventually learned to sleep through it, but sometimes she’d still grumble at me in her sleep.

This morning, I could see her point. I was exhausted and every muscle in my body ached, but I knew it’d be pointless to try to go back to sleep. I was awake for the long haul. With a resigned sigh, I managed to get myself out of bed and into my bathrobe and slippers. I shuffled to the kitchen and put the coffee on, then decided to sit at the table and read the paper until Shane and Jenny pulled themselves out of bed.

It didn’t take as long as I’d been expecting. I had the sneaking suspicion that they’d smelled the coffee, although I know that they’d probably been planning to wake up early anyway to check on me. It was a nice thought. After Shane had started her photography career neither one of them had any real reason to wake up early if they didn’t want to, and they usually didn’t. They had gotten up at a decent time in order to see their foster kids off to school, and sometimes they had appointments, but it wasn’t in the least unusual for me or Alice to go over at eleven and find them still in bed.

I was touched that they were so worried about me. I could have told them not to bother waking up so early, that I was a grown woman and more than capable of getting myself out of bed, but honestly it was nice knowing that I had people that cared enough about me to do that. I know that sounds selfish and I’m sure that it is, but that moment in time I appreciated it and wanted to be taken care of. Shane and Jenny seemed to sense that, and although I already loved them both, I think I might have grown to love them even more because of it.