LISA

"Mommy!"

"Hey, sweetness." I kneel down and embrace Lily when she throws herself into my arms. She's always happy when I come home, and my heart floods with love every waking minute she's with me. Inhaling deeply against her hair, I squeeze her tight and kiss her forehead. "Have you been good?"

"As good as gold," Jackie, her sitter, says. "So, you're heading out later?"

"Yes, but not for a while. Are you sure you're okay to stay on? It was all a little last-minute."

Jackie smiles. "No problem, hun. Want me to cook some food for us?"

"Not a chance, I'll do it," I say, aware that Jackie is in her late sixties and has been on her feet all afternoon. "Why don't you go and relax or take a nap? Lily can help me make dinner."

"Yes!" Lily grabs her stool and pushes it toward the kitchen countertop. She loves to help out, and even if that means I have to spend ages cleaning up after her, it's worth seeing the smile on her face.

"Thank you, Lily." I turn on the kettle to make Jackie a cup of tea and usher her toward the couch.

"Hey, I may be old but I'm not out of juice," she protests, but I can see that she's tired. Jackie used to live next door when we were kids and she looked after us several days a week. She's always been like a mother to me and now I couldn't be more grateful that she's minding Lily. She drops her off and picks her up from preschool three days a week, she stays on in the evenings when I have escort jobs and we usually have dinner together before I head out again. At the weekends, Lily is all mine, though, so we get to spend more quality time together than most kids with working parents.

"Please. Just take a nap." I hand her a fleece blanket. "How about stir-fried rice?"

"If anyone needs a nap it's you," she jokes, and shoots me a mischievous grin. Jackie knows what I'm up to tonight, and she's okay with it. I've always been comfortable telling her everything and so I told her about my side gig, when I first started. 'As long as you enjoy it and they treat you with respect, I'm not going to judge,' she said with a blush on her cheeks, then added: 'But please, don't ever tell your father.'

Jackie and my father have a strange relationship. They're best friends, but it never turned into anything more than that, even though sometimes they seem like a married couple. When Jackie moved to Sag Harbor a few years back she suggested she could help look after Lily. She never had a family of her own, perhaps because she was always waiting for my conflicted and indecisive father to ask her out. He never did, but Lily is like a grandchild to her, and life has been a lot easier since she moved two blocks down the road. Jackie's family to me and when the time comes, I'll look after her in return. That's just what we do. We all look after each other and make the best of a very complex situation with a painful history.

"I don't want rice," Lily yells from the open kitchen.

"Okay. Then what do you feel like?" I ask her. "Pasta?"

She thinks about that for a moment, then nods. "Yes, pasta. With broccoli."

"Sure," I say. "With broccoli sauce and parmesan. That's a great idea." Thankfully she likes vegetables. According to Jackie, I was the opposite when I was younger, but I seem to have lost my sweet tooth. I hand Lily a head of broccoli and a bowl, and she eagerly starts tearing off the florets. Of course, half of them end up on the floor, so I grab a strainer too, to wash them later. "Did you have a nice day with Aunt Jackie?"

"Yes," she says in a whisper while concentrating on her task. Her bottom lip juts out in the most adorable way while her little fingers fiddle with a floret that's too large for her liking.

"And how about school? What did you do this morning?"

"We learned about baby animals."

"Oh yeah? What kind of baby animals?"

Lily stops what she's doing for a beat and turns to me with a serious frown. "Chicklings and lammies. They're born in spring and they're small and then they grow big."

"That's right." I smile back at her. "Did you know that Grandpa has lambs now? They were born last week. We can go see them tomorrow if you want."

At this, Lily's face lights up. "Yes!" She throws her hands in the air, dropping another floret in the process. "Can we go now?"

"No, honey, not now. We'll go tomorrow. You have to have your dinner and sleep first and then you can wake me up, okay?"

Lily sulks for a beat, contemplating whether to throw a tantrum or not. She's been a bit unpredictable lately, but I've been assured that's totally normal behavior for a four-year-old. "Okay," she finally says, then turns her attention back to the broccoli. "Can I touch the lammies?"

"Yes, if you're gentle, you can touch them. They're still babies and you're a big girl, so you have to be very careful with them."

"I'm four!" Lily holds up three fingers, then looks at her hand and adds a fourth.

The random statement makes me laugh and I hold up four fingers too. Yes, you are. And soon you'll be…"

"Five!" Lily now holds up six fingers, and she grins from ear to ear, knowing she's cheating.

I pick her up and kiss her chubby cheek and she screeches with joy. From the couch in the living room, I hear Jackie laughing and as always when I feel overwhelmed with love, I take a moment to appreciate how lucky I am.