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“I’m excited for what the future will bring,” I say softly, trying to vocalize my feelings. “At the same time, I have no idea what that even looks like or what I want it to look like.”

I take another bite of ice cream. “For a long time, it was just you and me. Now it’s just me.”

“For a month, it was you and Nix and Kassian,” Hazel says, barely above a whisper. “You weren’t so lonely with them around, were you?”

The statement startles me. She’s not wrong, but I hadn’t realized she was paying attention to us that closely.

“You’re right. I really miss them.”

“What do you feel for them, Dad?”

Against my permission, I feel my face heat up at the innocent question. I’ve never felt anything like the way I feel for them. It’s all new, unexplored territory for me.

“I don’t know,” I confess truthfully. “I’ve never felt like this before. I want to be around them. I miss them terribly now that they’re gone. Everything feels so strongly right here in my chest,” I say, placing a hand over my heart. “But that doesn’t have to mean anything. I should just be happy I’ve made some new friends who make me feel happy when they’re around.”

Hazel lets out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I cannot believe I have to be the one to explain this to you, Father.”

“Don’t Father me,” I say with a chuckle, knowing she’s about to drop some sort of truth bomb now that she's broken out the ‘Father’.

“Those feelings you’re feeling? I know what they are. I’m a little hesitant to say too much but just know, there’s a reason you feel like that, okay? You want to be around them. You want to take care of them. I bet you’ve thought about what it would be like to hold them or maybe even kiss them?”

I quickly look away. “Hazel, don’t say stuff like that. You’ll stop my poor heart.”

Hazel snorts. “Remember what you used to tell me as a teenager?”

“If you can’t talk about sex with your partner you’re probably not mature enough to be having it,” I say with a groan. “You’re not my partner, you’re my child. I don’t want to talk about this with you.”

“I’m not trying to make things weird,” she says, holding up her hands in surrender. “I’m simply saying you should think about it.”

“This is all very new for me,” I tell her, shaking my head and staring down at my ice cream. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want them.”

“Then you have to do something about it, Dad! Don’t let them get away! Fight for them or whatever.”

“This isn’t a movie, Hazel.”

“It’s not,” she says in agreement. “But I bet they’re missing you just as much as you’re missing them. Some sort of romantic gesture is just the thing you all need to spark this into something real instead of this awkward ‘will they, won’t they’ you all have going on.”

“Why are you so invested in this?”

“Because I know you’re all going to work out,” she says with such conviction that I realize what she’s trying to say between the lines. Hazel’s magical ability is to see people’s soul ties. If she’s certain the three of us belong together, it’s probably because she saw it.

“Okay,” I say, sitting back in my seat. “Okay.”

“Okay? Just like that?”

I nod my head. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“I do,” she says, pulling out her phone. She pulls up a website to buy plane tickets. The moment leaves me with deja vu. Ah, so this is what the dream meant, this is what today was leading me towards.

Excitement starts to thrum inside of me, boiling just under my skin. Tonight I’ll see them again. Tonight I’ll tell them how I feel. Tonight will be the start of something magical.

I hold onto Hazel’s certainty, allowing it to give me confidence. I don’t even know what I’ll say or do when I finally get there, all I know is that I want to be by their side. I want to see them smile.

I want them. I want everything they’re willing to offer and offer everything I have for them in return. Now that I’ve talked things out with Hazel, these feelings seem so obvious. I want to hold them and kiss them and see them succeed. I want to be there when they celebrate and hold them when they mourn.

I care about Nix. I care about Kassian. I want the three of us to be together, to be companions, to be partners.

I think I might be falling in love with them and I can’t wait to share that with them. Tonight.