“I’m so glad we’re here.”
“Me too.”
She looks up at me through her eyelashes. “I like the school too. There’s this boy …”
“Don’t you even think about it.” I scowl.
Bailey laughs. “No, not like that. I think he’s going to be a good friend. That’s it. I know what happened to you when you were my age.”
My heart sinks. “Oh, sweetheart.”
“Dad would have killed me if I’d dated anyone back home. But maybe one day, I can …”
“Of course you can. But I’m not just going to let you run wild.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
I smile and pull her close. “I’m sure. But I need to make sure you’re safe.”
“I will be. We all will. It was always you we listened to. Dad didn’t have a clue about teenage girls, even though he married one.”
My throat goes dry. “Bailey.”
“We know what happened, Mum. Maybe Jason doesn’t, but it’s not really rocket science when we knew how long you were with Dad and how old you two were. Did you get married because of Noah?”
I lick my lips, frantic for the moisture. “Yes, but not in the way you might think.”
“Dad wasn’t Noah’s dad though, was he?”
Raising my free hand, I pinch the bridge of my nose. “No, he wasn’t.”
“I knew it. He doesn’t look like any of us. Kiera used to think he was adopted, but I thought it was more likely that he just had a different father. Does Noah know who it is?”
“Not yet,” I croak.
“Oh.” Bailey raises her head. “I’m sorry. I won’t ask any more questions. I just wish there was another dad for all of us.”
My heart splinters. “No. You’re stuck with me.”
Her smile lights up her face. “We love you, Mum. Things are just going to still be weird for a while.”
“I know, but now we’re in our new house, and we can live the way we want.” I kiss her temple. “Now, I thought we might get something easy for dinner because there’s no food in the house yet. That’s tomorrow’s job.”
“Can we get pizza?”
“I’ll order it,” Noah says as he walks back into the room. We’ve had pizza twice since Malcolm died—he didn’t believe in wasting money on takeout food, and heaven forbid I have a night off cooking.
“Tell Noah what you want and go get your brother and sister.”
“Put your feet up, Mum,” he says.
“I’m going to, and then after dinner, I’m going to take a long bath that might just set world records.”
He laughs. “You deserve it.”
By the time I’ve finished my bath, the house is quiet.
Noah got the internet up and running after dinner, and while Jason’s fast asleep, the girls are in their own rooms on their computers.
