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I could have gone home with what we had. The volcano was more than enough mess for one weekend. But Hazel was looking at me with the kind of determination that made arguing pointless.

"There's a hardware store on the way home. Let's try there."

The hardware store was enormous, and we were lost within three minutes.

Hazel was reading the back of the borax page out loud to me while I scanned the cleaning aisle, trying to figure out which shelf it would even be on.

"Try the one with the green lid."

I turned. Alex was standing at the end of the aisle with a basket in his hand.

"Alex."

He looked at Hazel, who was clutching the open book against her chest. "What are you two up to?"

"Science experiments," Hazel said. "From a book. There's a volcano one and a crystal one and one where foam goes everywhere."

"That sounds serious."

"It is serious."

I held up two boxes I'd been comparing. "She found a book at the library, and now my kitchen is about to become a lab."

"Want some help?"

"That would be nice."

He set his basket down and helped us look. He found the borax before I did and talked a store employee into checking the back for hydrogen peroxide when the shelf was empty. Hazel explained each experiment to him without stopping to breathe, and he listened like she was the authority.

When we checked out, Hazel tugged my sleeve.

"Mama, can Alex come for dinner? He can help with the experiments."

I looked at Alex. "Do you want to come over for dinner?"

I expected the polite no. Erin had told me enough about her brother to know that dinner invitations didn't land. He'd say something about an early shift or having to get back, something that sounded reasonable and meant the same thing every time.

"Yeah. I'd like that."

He followed us home. I pulled into the driveway while he parked on the street. By the time I had Hazel out of the car, he was getting the bags from the backseat.

Hazel had the supplies spread across the kitchen table before I'd set my keys down. She opened the book to the crystal experiment and pulled Alex into the chair beside her.

"Okay. We have to mix the water first because the crystals take days to grow." She pushed the box of borax toward him. "You measure the borax. I'll do the water."

"How much?"

"Three tablespoons per cup. It says so right here." She pointed at the page.

They bent over the book together, measuring borax into jars of hot water, twisting pipe cleaners into shapes to hang inside. Hazel wanted a star. Alex made one that looked more like a pretzel. She told him so. He tried again.

I watched them for a moment, my daughter and this man, heads together over a row of jars, before I started dinner.

While I cooked, they moved on to the volcano. They built it out of modeling clay around a small bottle, shaping the sides while Hazel directed where the lava channels should go.

Hazel was painting the volcano red, with her tongue between her teeth, completely gone to the world, when Alex walked over to me in the kitchen. "Can I help with anything?"

"You can chop the vegetables."