There'll be no more trying again

 "Well, Maddie's Dad could have stayed at your place if Joe wasn't there," Alfie didn't mean to sound like a pest, but it was a bit of a chore having to show Clark around town while he stayed at Maddie and Boone's while they honeymooned at Disney World.

Tammy practically rolled her eyes at him while Clark was in her kitchen with Joe, getting breakfast.

"I know you don't have time to stay. Don't worry, we'll get him back to Maddie and Boone's," she said. She was sorry to trouble him this morning, but Joe ended up making biscuits since hers didn't turn out with black bottoms. She said she hated to admit she'd lost touch with cooking. She always had Naoki, who made breakfast. She liked to drink coffee and watch.

"We're taking him to the zoo today," Joe announced once they got situated with their scrambled eggs and sausage. He brought her her veggie omelette. 

"Oh, I don't really need the fuss, you know," Clark sighed with a fuss.

"We don't mind, really. We can spend the day," Joe said it had been well over a decade since he'd been.

Alfie looked at his mother then. He knew she wouldn't want to spend the entire day there, but somehow Joe had a happy effect on her and she was all smiles about it.. Now Alfie wanted to roll his eyes at her. How could she be this way? Was she in love with him? He didn't want to believe it. He just knew the moody side of her. But maybe that was his dad's fault.

Except, his dad was so pleasant now with Boone's adopted mother.  Alfie sighed and sat down to a fresh cup of coffee. Yes, he guessed things were for the best with the right people.

"Is that boy keeping you at night, Al?" Joe smiled.

Alfie gritted a smile. Nobody had ever called him Al until now. "Oh no, he's sleeping through the night." It wasn't completely true, but sometimes, Lucas did. It made Alfie sleepy just thinking of lost sleep. He drank a little more coffee, yet he yawned before he could stop himself.

Clark noted what a rambunctious fellow Lucas was.

"Alfie was walking by the time he was nine months old," Tammy said as if it might be the only real fact she could recall of Alfie's childhood. "He was a climber too."

Alfie gave her the eye as if she really needed to stop telling people about how he climbed up on the kitchen counter, but she told it anyway.