She seems surprised. “You’re welcome. Although, next time, you could just not show up, and save both of us the trip.”

I chuckle.

And suddenly, I clear my throat, making a definite decision. “Can you come to the cafe? There’s someone I want you to meet.”

39. Keller

39

KELLER

I finally get it.

I know people always compare me to my father, but I’ve always seen him as someone different, separate. He was an adult when I was learning to ride a bike. He’s simply not me.

But as my eyes bounce between Claire and her slightly older clone, I understand what other people have been saying.

I’m extremely confused and slightly horny.

There weren’t pictures of the mother in the file I read about Claire, because she wasn’t a huge part of her life. In and out a few times a year.

She’s what, thirty-five? At least I know exactly what Claire will look like in a few years.

Hot, that’s what.

“Oh god, you’re pretty,” the mother says, eyes wide. “He’s so pretty, Claire. You guys are going to make the cutest babies. You are making babies, right?” she checks. “That’s why I’m meeting him.”

Claire blushes, and I grin. “Practicing.”

“Good for you,” she tells her daughter, visibly sincere. “All right, tell me everything.”

We do not tell the mother everything. Even Claire’s edited version contains more truth that what I would have guessed.

The fact I paid for the harpy’s surgery for a kiss makes Hyacinth laugh so hard she holds her side. “She keeps saying she got it by being a fucking saint. Oh, please, please let me tell her.”

“Mom, she’d flip.”

“She’d die on spot, you mean,” Hyacinth snorts. “Let me get a life insurance policy on her, then tell her.”

I decide I like her, the absent parent thing aside. I certainly wasn’t equipped to raise a kid at sixteen. She made a shitty choice in a shitty situation. I remember something about her file; she asked for custody ten years ago and was denied, as a young, single woman without a stable income or a home she owned.

She tried.

She’s trying still, that much is clear.

“I think Claire said you’re working in New York?”

Claire, who said no such thing, doesn’t disagree.

“Yep, kiddo. In finance. It’s a bit busy, but it pays.”

“Boyfriend? Close friends? Dog?” I check.

“No, no, and god do I want a dog, but no. What’s it to you, handsome?” she teases.

I shrug. “I wonder if you might want to move out to Thorn Falls is all. We have a pretty busy financial center. Nothing like Manhattan, but it’s also less competitive and busy. I fully intend to keep your daughter there.”