He disappeared into the bathroom, and Eve considered her seating options. There was a little table at the far end of the room flanked by two chairs, and there were two double beds. The angle to the TV from the table would be extreme, and more importantly, if she sat there, would it seem like she was avoiding him? This was a friendly movie viewing, right? She didn’t need to sit in Siberia.

She sat on one of the beds.

He emerged and sat on the other.

There. No problem. They were easy. They were breezy.

He turned on the TV. “We missed the first ten minutes.”

“It’s okay,” she deadpanned. “I’ve seen this movie once or twice before.”

“You don’t say?” He kept his eyes on the screen, but his lips quirked up.

Hers followed like they were attached to his via some unseen force. It was kind of funny, in retrospect: the city girl who couldn’t swim, obsessed with the tale of the Little Mermaid. But it wasn’t really about the swimming. It was the idea of being of one world but wanting to live in another one. Of what you might give up to do so. Of whether, once the sacrifice had been made, it had been worth it.

She thought about what he’d said when he invited her over. He had made sacrifices, too, to get to this point where he was preparing to see his sister off to university. “So you’re nervous about the looming empty nest?”

“Yeah, there’s that. But I’m also worried about the money. Even though I’ve been trying to save for this since she was a kid, I’m stressing about it.”

“I don’t suppose…” She shouldn’t ask. It was none of her business.

“What?”

“Well, technically, if she applies for loans or grants or anything, it’s your father’s financial situation they take into account.” She was betting that Charles Collins’s finances were a lot less rosy than Sawyer’s. “So that could actually be good?”

“I have legal custody.”

Wow. She had imagined Sawyer taking Clara and leaving and that being the end of it. “Impressive.”

“Margaret Thompson helped me. She was the lawyer in town before Jason Sims. We drew up a petition. Charles didn’t fight it. A judge agreed with me. It was actually remarkably easy.”

“I remain impressed.”

“Anyway, we don’t have to talk about this. We’re missing the movie.”

She waved dismissively at the TV.

“But how will we know if Ariel gets her voice back?” he asked.

“Spoiler: they live happily ever after, and everyone can talk.”

“Well, anyway, Clara’s eighteen now—it was her birthday last week—so I guess she technically has custody of herself.”

“Did you let your dad give her that present?”

“I did not.”

“Sorry,” she said quickly. “None of my business.”