He doesn’t mean a word of it. We’ve taken care of each other for a long time and would continue to do so without hesitation. But adding Blake to our little circle feels good. It feels right. A puzzle piece we were missing, and for the first time, I’m not worried that something awful is going to happen to him just because he’s important to me.

Jacob opens the door and nearly runs smack into Holly, who’s holding Olive’s hand. “Oh,” she gasps.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. C’mon in, Hols,” Jacob says, suddenly not going anywhere. In fact, he escorts Holly in, giving her an appreciative once-over before taking over with Olive easily. “Hey, Olive, wanna see the new game I got? You try to keep the ice-skating penguins from falling into the icy water. If you’re good, they do pirouettes. If not, they get eaten by seals.” He tickles Olive, mimicking the seals’ chomp-chomp-chomp sounds, and she squeals happily.

Holly smiles warmly at Jacob. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” he says with a shrug as he guides the little girl over to a chair in the corner and shows her the game. He thinks it’s no big deal, but I know that happy smile on Olive’s face means a lot to Holly.

I still think Jacob is way too young for Holly, but maybe that’s because I see him as the teen he was when he came to Grandma and Grandpa’s.

But he hasn’t been that kid in a long time. He’s grown into a fine man, mature well beyond his years—other than the pranks he pulls on me, and Holly would be lucky to have a man who appreciates her the way Jacob does.

“Oh, noooo,” Jacob moans, “not the seals! They’re gonna get you!”

Olive wiggles her butt in the chair, turning the phone one way and the other to get away in the game.

“Whew, that was a seal-iously close one,” Jacob deadpans, and Olive beams happily, celebrating her penguin’s escape.

“You’re silly,” Olive tells Jacob.

“I think you mean seal-y,” he says with a smirk.

Oh, God, Holly is done for. Jacob’s got dad jokes.

Holly looks to me with wide eyes and begs, “Tell me what happened.”

I’m not sure if she means all my shit or how she missed the fact that Jacob’s all grown up.

“I think we’re gonna go to the vending machine, see what snacks we can find to get good and sugared up while you two talk. ’Kay, Holly?” Jacob asks, already holding Olive’s hand and stepping toward the door.

He knows that Olive doesn’t need to hear this story, and when Holly nods, he leads the girl out to the hallway, closing the door softly behind them.