“It’s okay, Evy,” Logan said.
But I knew it wasn't. He’d managed to find a connection with Aurora, but a barrier was still firmly up with Anna. At least she let me past it.
“Give her time, Logan,” I murmured, repeating my usual mantra.
We stood side-by-side, watching the girls fasten their helmets.
“I know,” he said, his voice low. “There’s no point in rushing. It took them six years to find me. I can wait a little longer to earn their trust.”
“It’s not so difficult with Rory.”
“I just need to learn more Sign Language so I can talk to her properly.”
He’d already improved so much in just a few days. Every night, after the girls were in bed, he’d study on his computer before joining me in our room for the sign language lessons I’d promised him.
And after the lessons were over… we’d practice other things.
Just the thought sent a shiver down my spine. I could hardly wait for nightfall, to have Logan inside me again.
“Come on, Evy!” Anna’s voice broke me from my trance.
I blinked and saw Logan was already steadying Aurora on her bike, while Anna waited impatiently for me.
“Sorry, honey. I got distracted,” I told her, bending down to fix the helmet buckle she’d fastened incorrectly.
When I finished, I found her studying me with a thoughtful expression.
“What is it, my love?” I asked.
She pointed a mittened hand at Logan, who was now several feet away, running alongside a beaming Aurora. “It’s just… you know…him?”
“‘Him’? Your father?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever.”
“What about your father?”
“You and him… Are you a couple?”
My face grew warm. For a second, I fumbled for an answer, but the truth came to me clearly, and sadly. “No, my love. Your father and I are not dating.”
We weren’t. If she’d been ten years older and asked, “Are you sleeping with my dad?” the answer would have been different. Because that’s all it was. There had been no conversations about relationships or feelings.
“But youlooklike you are,” she countered.
“Why do you think that?”
“You’re always holding hands, always standing close. And you look at each other in that silly way. Like boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“Does your mother have a boyfriend?” I asked, seizing the chance to ask about Eleanor, and more urgently, to steer the conversation away from us.
“Susan’s mom, my friend from daycare, has a boyfriend. So I asked Mommy if she had one.”
“And what did she say?”
“She said no, because she only has time for music and us.” She fell silent for a moment, her small face clouding. “Evy, do you think Mommy got a boyfriend and that’s why she doesn’t have time for Rory and me anymore?”
“No, my love. Of course not. I mean, she might have a boyfriend, but she wouldneverstop making time for you.”
