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She covered her smile with her hand, unable to face the way she was grinning at her phone.

Bailey: Oh yeah?

Wes: Yeah. Nothing scares you. You get what you want.

She didn’t know about that. Besides, what did she want these days? A safe place to call home. For her son to feel happy and loved. Maybe so she would not feel so alone. One day to have roots. A place she wouldn’t leave. A family to call her own.

She wasn’t that alone. The Missing Piece had thousands of listeners. She had friends. None who were super close anymore. Bailey had drifted from them since Ryan died and had been focusing her attention on raising her baby. A baby who would be starting kindergarten in the fall. Time was flying by.

Bailey almost typed, “What if I don’t know what I want?” but decided against it.

Wes meant work, and he was right. She wouldn’t be scared away from finding Caitie’s murderer.

Bailey: If stubbornness is my superpower, enlighten me: what’s yours?

Wes: Tenacity

Bailey: That’s just a nice way to say stubborn. Pick another superpower.

Wes: No

Wes: You’re stuck with me for now

Wes: Have a good night

“What are you smiling about?” Matt plopped himself into her lap. “I wanna see.”

She faced her phone down on the floor. “I was scowling.”

Matt adjusted his little red glasses, then reached for the piles of Legos she’d been sorting. “Do you want to see what I did to my village?”

Bailey scooped him into her arms, laughing as he giggled and kicked, and leaned close to the little Lego world Matt had been building. “Show me everything.”

And he did. The people. The towers. The living arrangements. The food. He assigned her a little figurine, and together they crossed a drawbridge and climbed aboard a ship that took them to Mars.

Dinner time arrived. A new police cruiser replaced the one that had been posted all day.

“Do you really think Mary Ellen has two police cars in her driveway?” Matt asked, pushing his broccoli around his plate.

“Maybe both of her parents are police officers.”

Matt’s eyes rounded. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Eat your broccoli, Matty.”

He shoveled a bite in and asked, mouth full, “Is it weird to have two parents?”

Bailey paused mid-chew. She’d handled variations of the dead father conversation over the years, but her son had never tossed her a question like that. She swallowed and sipped her water. “Everyone’s normal is different. Does it feel weird to have just me?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Then it probably feels normal to people who have two.”

“Probahbawy. Can we get more Legos?”

And just like that, the heavy conversation had moved on. One day it wouldn’t be so easy, but for now, she was grateful toys were enough to distract her from life’s bumpy road.

The first fireflies were appearing, officially kicking off summer, and they ate Popsicles and chased the flashes of light until it was time for Matt to brush his teeth and head to bed. Bailey kissed her son goodnight and wondered if it was weird that she was raising Matt by herself. It was the only thing she knew. She and Ryan hadn’t known she was pregnant. They hadn’t even been trying. Birth control wasn’t one hundred percent effective, and hadn’t life been throwing her curveballs?