Her eyes rolled as she dropped into the stool beside Jennifer’s. She hadn’t stormed out and she didn’t seem offended at all, which was a good sign. “Green is a great color,” she said.
“For a tree,” I said. “Also, have all the curbs in Chicago sparred with your car or did you drive into them on purpose?”
Jennifer burst into giggles and even Lu laughed at that. I blinked hard, surprised, but I had to admit, that was a high point for me. Lu didn’t seem to laugh easily.
Amber folded her arms. “My car has personality.”
“The only thing that car has is a short future ahead of it.”
“Only because it’s had such a storied life,” she said. “Which is more than I can say for that monstrosity you’ve got parked outside. What, did you get it yesterday when you realized wewouldn’t all fit into whatever spiffy little sports car you really drive?”
“I got it this morning, actually.”
The girls dissolved into hysterics, obviously not realizing that I’d been serious, but I didn’t point it out either. Across the table, Adeline was still looking soft and relaxed, watching us and listening. Amusement lit her eyes, but she didn’t say anything.
I caught myself looking at her again every few seconds, unable to stop now that it had dawned on me that she was really here. Adeline Morris, in my ranch house.Never thought that was going to happen.
Naturally, I also kept pretending I wasn’t staring at her. Theo had spent my entire adolescence informing me I had the subtlety of a freight train when I liked someone. If the knowing look on Amber’s face was anything to go by, he’d been correct for once.
When the pizza arrived, I went to get it. We ate right there at the kitchen island while Bear stationed himself beneath the table like a hopeful little scavenger. Lu stole olives off Jennifer’s plate for the sole purpose of instigating conflict and Adeline laughed with Amber, but she kept sneaking glances at me too.
At one point, I even caught her flashing me a smile and my heart did something in response that was completely unhealthy.
After dinner, the girls launched into negotiations to try and weasel their way into my theater room. They’d discovered it earlier and the squeals had been ear piercing, but there had been something satisfying about it. Clearly, they liked the place, and although it was probably just the novelty of having so much space after being cooped up in that condo, I found it strangely gratifying thatmyhouse had their seal of approval.
“Can we have a movie night?” Jennifer asked hopefully.
“With popcorn,” Lu said.
Adeline checked her watch, then snorted softly. “Not tonight, ladies. It’s way past your bedtime and you still need a bath, too.”
“But we’re on vacation,” Jennifer argued. “There’s no bedtime on vacation.”
“There is when you’re both going to be crabby tomorrow if you don’t get enough sleep.”
Amber nodded her agreement. “EvenI’mgoing to bed. I have plans to explore tomorrow and I don’t want to be too tired to enjoy that. Do you?”
Jennifer immediately shook her head, but Lu seemed to be considering it. Either way, Adeline stood and herded them to the stairs, much to their dismay. Loud groans rang out, but they went with her after saying goodnight to Amber and me.
She stood up too, sending me a curt salute as she backed out of the kitchen. “Good luck tomorrow. You’re going to need it.”
I didn’t argue with her. “Thanks. Good luck choosing a bed in all those bedrooms.”
She laughed and left, and I suddenly found myself alone. Amber wasn’t a teenager, but I weirdly felt uncertain about having her sleep in the guest house all by herself anyway.Can kids still sneak out to go partying if they’re in their early twenties and out in the Wisconsin countryside?
As I considered it, I decided it probably wasn’t classified as sneaking out anymore at that age. It was probably just leaving. I started collecting the pizza boxes, transferring all the leftover slices to one before carrying that over to the fridge, but the longer I was alone, the more uncertain I was.
About everything.
For fuck’s sake. Two crises of confidence in one day?
I hadn’t even hadoneof those in the last decade, but at this rate, I was going to be surviving on them for the next ten years. The problem was that I’d had almost no time to prepare myself for this and I had absolutely no idea what it was supposed to look like.
Adeline was upstairs putting the girls to sleep. I knew that much. What I didn’t know was whether I was supposed to help or stay out of the way. Once Adeline and I were married, I was going to be their stepfather, but only just thinking that word almost gave me heart palpitations.
In the end, I took the empty pizza boxes to the trash and cleaned up instead of trying to figure out what—if any—role I was supposed to play in the girls’ lives.
An hour later, soft footsteps sounded behind me and I turned to find Adeline standing in the doorway. Her eyes were soft and sleepy. They’d always looked that way after nine at night, even back in the days when our parties at college had only started at ten.
