"Edward asked me if he could date you."

Jacy was shoving spaghetti into her mouth like the world was ending in thirty seconds.

"Slow down. You're gonna throw up." I gave her a disgusted look as she spit half of her bite back onto her plate. "Gross, Jacy. You're eleven. Act like it."

"You won't even let me walk to the skate park by myself." Jacy gave me a perfect girl-sneer. "I might as well act like a baby."

"You can't just go wandering the neighborhood alone."

"It's three blocks," she snipped "Plus, Edward is there."

"So?"

"So, it's not like I would be alone."

"When did this happen? With Edward? The asking… about me?"

"Today, after show-and-tell."

I'd been planning on talking to her about him, had been putting it off for days now because I wasn't even sure what was going on, much less what to tell her, but it seemed he had beaten me to it.

"What did he say?"

"That he really likes me, and you. That he wants to be around more. He wants to kiss you."

"And what did you say?"

"That kissing is gross. But it's fine, I guess."

"You guess?"

She looked at me then, marinara all over her face, and her hair messy from her afternoon at the skatepark with Edward. Her eyes were soft and deep like she'd thought this over, and she smiled at me.

"He said he wants to make you happy. And that I make him happy. That's nice, isn't it? I like him. Is he going to move in? We could make the basement into a bedroom. He can take my Monday chore." She shoved more food into her mouth, speaking around it. "I hate mopping."

"He's not moving in." I shook my head. Of course she would think that a boyfriend moving in meant a third bedroom. In the basement.

"Not yet," she muttered into her dinner. "He said our house is his second-favorite place."

I could guess the first without asking.

"How did show-and-tell go?" I changed the topic, not interested in discussing such big changes over a meal that cost only six and a half dollars. That particular talk deserved expensive steak for her and top-shelf wine for me.

"So good!"she squealed. "All the boys think I'm cool, and all the girls are jealous of me."

Perfect outcome, in Jacy's mind.

"What did he talk about?"

"All about touring and competitions and this one time when he broke his ankle. Mrs. Henry did not like that part—she made him stop. He showed everyone a couple of kickflips right there in front of the classroom. He told everyone I'm the best skater he knows."

Jacy disappeared upstairs, claiming homework to get out of dish duty, and I stood at the sink for a long time, staring off into space.

Edward.

Edward with those eyes and the curls and that fucking cute thing he did with his mouth when he was trying to hold back a grin, the dirty kind, like he was thinking indecent things. About me.

Edward. The twenty-one-year-old boy who had dropped into our lives and seemed so doggedly determined to stay here. He made my stomach roll over like it was settling down to sleep. Made my heart thump wild, and my hands feel like they needed to hold on to something solid and steadfast.

He made me feel stupid and old and pretty. All at the same time.

Edward, who had asked Jacy for me. Like a guy going to a girl's father, wanting permission to marry. Except he went to my eleven-year-old daughter to ask her if he could make me happy.

And she said yes.

AN

*whispers*

I have feelings.

Most of them are for Hadley. A big chunk are for this dude.

Thank you for reading.

xo/HB

(Also - sidebar - it's pronounced Jay-see. You're welcome.)