Technically, it's her car. (Title is still in her name only)
In all fairness, I should note that the evening had a happy ending. We hadn't made dinner reservations; Little Miss Field Day is in the cast for the High School play, they had a "full cast" rehersal scheduled, and we didn't know when she'd be done -- some of the cast would get early dismissals. Turned out that the "full cast" rehersal was cancelled (replaced by a "background dancers only" rehersal), so that was no longer an issue.
We went to a nice little Italian place about a mile from the house. No crowd, in & out, food was good. The boss even got a rose, courtesy of the management -- who got them from the new florist that just opened up in the strip mall & was advertising.
And... my mom got the flowers and was quite happy to arrive (I should have known her protest was pro forma). The boss gave me a "new" card, this one properly said "TO my husband". So all was well.