Page 201 of Sins of Innocence

She smiles at me. Vindicated.

Sadie looks at the floor. "I just..." She swallows. "I think everybody would be happier."

"Gran could have under her bed back," Joy says like that's a hugely winning argument.

I fight a smile.

"Mom should only have to share her room with you," Sadie says and then blushes.

Neeve nods.

Joy slides off the arm of the couch and kneels beside me on the couch, her little hands clasped in pleading. "If we had another bedroom, I could play princess tea party without everybody telling me to be quiet."

"You are very loud," Neeve says with a frown.

Joy smiles proudly. "I know."

Neeve rolls her eyes. "You narrate the tea party."

"The princesses need directions."

"They really don't."

"They do if they're pirates too."

I consider that. "A fair point."

Neeve is clearly unconvinced.

Sadie looks at me earnestly. "We're not trying to be greedy."

"I know."

"We just thought..." She looks at me with trust that I will never betray. "You're our dad now."

Neeve nods. "So this is the kind of thing we should ask you."

I nod. "You're right."

Sadie's shoulders relax with relief. Neeve's grin is as big as Joy's. "Really?"

"Really." They're not asking for extravagance. They're asking for permanence. For room to grow. For enough bathrooms that mornings don't begin with negotiations. For enough closets that nobody lives out of someone else's.

For a place that's our family home.

Suddenly I want that too. So much, it doubles the ache in my chest.

They came to me. Not their mother. Not Maureen. Me. Because they believed I could fix it.

"Leave it with me." It's the easiest promise I've ever made.

The girls disappear down the hall arguing over whose room would be biggest in a house we don't own.

I watch them go.

They're already planning for forever. And that settles something deep inside me.

"You handled that well." Maureen passes me a mug of tea on her way to her recliner.