Page 57 of Friends to WHAT?!

Once in my treasured workspace, she takes her seat in my rolling chair and gestures to the couch.

I oblige.

“Okay,” she says. “Let’s talk.”

My lips twitch, and I take a moment to compose myself before I get into things. Once I’m certain I won’t laugh at my adorable, professional little girl, I start. “I would like for Miss Leora to be around a lot more,” I tell her. “In the sort of way where Miss Leora and I will be kissing. Would that be all right with you? If you’re uncomfortable with us having that sort of a relationship, I want you to tell me now, and know that she will still be here. She will still be in your life. Even if we aren’t together like that, you’ll still get to have her as much as you want her.”

Amia nods, hums, and gives a couple of well-timed, “Uh huh… uh huh… I see”s. When I’m done speaking, she stands, holds a single finger up in a signal for me to wait, then bolts from the room. When she returns, she carries her backpack. “I’ve been waiting for this,” she says. “I’ve been working on this forages.”

From the backpack, she pulls a small cloth bag—one of the hundred tiny jewelry bags I bought in bulk for her to store her polished rocks in. She upends the bag into her hand, and a small purple stone falls out. Perhaps a bit less than a centimeter in diameter, the stone shines a pale lilac as she presents it to me. “It’s for Miss Leora,” she says. “For when you’re ready to propose to her. It needs the ring part, but I thought you could probably handle that. I tried to find some metal to do it myself, but nobody would give me any without an explanation, and theproject wassecret, so I couldn’t give them one.” She scowls. “Grampy even had a whole bunch of wire in his garage, but Gigi caught me when I was trying to sneak out to get some, and I had to go in time out for not following the rules. It was awful, and I didn’t even get the wire to make it worth it.”

I… am going to cry. Or maybe I am crying. Maybe all I’ve ever done is cry, because my daughter is sosweet, and I have never once been able to handle it, especially not when she throws the full force of it at me like this.

I fight through the lump in my throat to say, “I’m not ready to propose yet, but when I am, I will be more than happy to use that stone. We can take it to the jeweler together to get it placed on a ring band.”

“It’s an amethyst,” Amia informs me. “That’s a gemstone, not a regular stone, and it’s her favorite color.” She lifts it, showing me. “See?”

“I see,” I reply, voice low with emotion. “You’re okay, then?” I ask. “With Miss Leora and me?”

She snorts. “Duh,” she says. “What do you think I’ve been doing all this time? Do you think I’d tell you to kidnap somebody you aren’t supposed to marry?” She rolls her big, brown eyes. “Kidnappings areromantic. I told you that. And romantic stuff is for married people.”

I have nothing to say to that. Shedidtell me it was romantic. Several times, in fact.

“I might be a little dense,” I mutter.

Kindly, she does not agree… with her words. Her face, however, screamsYES, YOU SURE ARE. “Here,” she says. “You take the amethyst. You’re going to need it soon.”

I let her set it in the palm of my hand, then close my fingers over it. “Not soon,” I correct. “We’re not going to rush anything.”

Amia sighs and shakes her head at me. “Daddy,” she says seriously. “You can’t waittoolong. I’m motherless, you know. Itwould be irresponsible to leave me like this, and a Blackwood isnotirresponsible.”

I bark at my own lesson being lobbed at me.

“Touché,” I say. “But you’re forgetting something.”

Her face scrunches. “What?”

I smile softly and ruffle her hair. “The good things are always sweeter when you have to wait for them.”

Epilogue

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New moms aresothe best.

Amia

Daddy thinks I can’t see him sneaking kisses with Miss Leora at the other end of the grocery aisle. I can, though. He’s taken four so far, and is leaning in for a fifth. I look away real quick before his lips touch hers.

I’m happy Miss Leora is with us, but those kind of kisses are soyuck. I can look when he kisses her forehead or her cheek or her shoulder or her hand or her…

Wow. Daddy sure does kiss Miss Leora a lot.

I wish he would just marry her already. Instead, he keeps her ring in his pocket all the time, doing nothing with it.

If he waits much longer,I’mgoing to propose for him. How much more waiting do we need to do? How much sweeter could things get? She’s already perfect. She’s pretty and smart and kind andeverythingI have ever wanted.

She cares about me. She braids my hair and puts it in space buns and listens to music with me and she reads me stories when I ask and she lets me hang out at her store with all the pretty rocks, and she even made a display just formyrocks, which she gives me to make pretty every single week. And she got meanotherrock tumbler so now I havethree.