30

I knew my lips were smiling. “I see her a lot. I even babysit sometimes.”

“Where’s her mom?”

I took a deep breath. “That’s a complicated story.”

She set her fork down and leaned into the edge of the table. “Keep talking about Everly. I like this side of you.”

I laughed. “Listen, I’m not even close to being ready for kids, but she’s a hell of a lot of fun to have around. When Ford travels for work and his nanny is tied up, she usually stays with me.” I thought of our last sleepover and how we had stayed up until eleven, making sundaes, hours past her bedtime. “Uncle D—that’s what she calls me, and she crashes in my bed because there are monsters in my guest room.”

“Naturally.”

“When she wakes up, she has hair like yours, all wild and wavy.” I put my hand over my mouth as I chuckled again. “She has me put it into these side ponytails—I don’t know what they’re called.”

“Pigtails?”

“Yeah, that’s it.” I shook my head as I recalled our last morning together, how the goddamn elastics hadn’t