Noah hesitated.
“Sometimes.”
“Do you regret taking care of us?”
His answer came immediately.
“Never.”
“But you could have had children.”
“I have children.”
Emma smiled.
“You know what I mean.”
He did.
But he had never found a simple way to explain that sometimes love arrives in a form completely different from the future you imagined.
The Teenage Years
Then came adolescence.
Suddenly the little girls who once needed Noah to tie their shoes were slamming doors, arguing about rules, discovering music he didn’t understand, asking for clothes he thought were ridiculously expensive, and eventually becoming interested in dating.
Noah announced that he would not interrogate every boy who visited.
Lily looked relieved.
“Good.”
“But I am meeting them.”
“You just said—”“I changed my mind.”
“You’re impossible.”
“I’m responsible.”
“You’re old.”
Noah stared at her.
“I’m thirty-nine.”
“Exactly.”
All three girls laughed.
So did Noah.
