Jacy and Edward showed up a full hour before five, Edward carrying both skateboards under his arm and Jacy on his back.

"What happened?" I flew out the door and met them on the bottom step of the porch, inspecting Jacy for damage. She was bleeding from her shoulder and bleeding more from her knee and she had the biggest grin I'd ever seen on her face.

"You should have seen it, Mom!" she squealed. "I did a kickflip! And then I did another one but on the ramp! And then I tried to do a handstand, and that's when I crashed, but all the boys stopped to watch me, and Mom, Mom, listen, Mom. One even told me that I was 'really good,' and I think I'll be able to do it by tomorrow if I practice all night long on the couch tonight!"

She took a giant heaving breath, panting heavily with excitement.

"I thought you said I should trust you?" I looked up at Edward. I finally noticed that his shirt was wrapped around her knee, her blood all over it, and he was half fucking naked.

"I definitely didn't tell her to do that. She's stubborn."

"I am not," Jacy hissed at him.

"Yes, you most certainly are. Get inside. We'll clean you up, and then you have homework."

Actually, she had two hours of homework, which meant I had two hours of it too. I stood as she trotted off, waving goodbye to Edward and slamming the door too hard behind her. She was going to crack a window someday. I turned toward Edward, finding him with his giant foot on my daughter's tiny pink skateboard, testing it out. Grimacing.

"This thing is a piece of shit."

"I know. But I wasn't sure if this was worth the investment yet. Four years of dance, remember?"

"I have another board—shorter, squat. It would be fun to put her on it."

"You mean, let her ride your board?"

"I mean I'll give it to her, if you're ok with that."

I kept my eye resolutely on that pink piece of shit so that I wouldn't look at him. I knew what I'd see. I knew I'd like it. And I knew that it was preposterous—this tiny crush I was nursing on my kid's self-appointed skateboard instructor.

Who couldn't be a day older than way-too-young for me.

"A handstand?" I asked.

He nodded. "A handstand. Girl is fearless."

"That's what I was worried about. You're free to quit whenever you want, you know? You don't have to keep doing this for her."

"I like it. She's cool, kind of reminds me of me."

"I hope that's a good thing."

"The best." He smiled wide. "Besides, I kinda like it here."

"Where?"

"Standing on your sidewalk. Maybe someday I'll reach the porch. Maybe"—he leaned in close to me, smiling sweet and sly— "maybe someday you'll let me inside."

AN

Y'all - I can't even tell you how hard Hadley works for these words.

She takes my little mess and makes it happy.

Thank you for reading.

(Sidebar - I suck at review replies. Between my three am bakery shifts, a toddler, a side business, being married to a dude in a band, and needing to sleep sometimes - it's just not feasible for me to reply to everything. Please know that I read each and every one, and they make my heart zip around like I gave the Small Bee twelve lollipops and a puppy.)

XO

HB