Cat looked down at her lap. “That’s very sweet, Sara, but my life doesn’t exactly allow me to settle down in one place for longer than a week at a time. I have a place in Brooklyn that I see three months out of the year. I’ve got projects that require extensive travel, and I’ll probably end up moving wherever my school is built. You and your dad, your lives are here. It wouldn’t be fair of me to ask either one of you to pack up and follow me around.”

She felt Noah’s gaze heavy on her. Maybe they hadn’t pushed this discussion this far before, but it was something they were both aware of. They both knew there was no future here. Just fun. And disappointing a twelve-year-old made Cat feel like a monster. She didn’t want to feel guilty for choosing herself over Noah. But damn it, that’s what she wanted in life. She shouldn’t have to feel guilty for choosing what was best for her. That’s why she was single.

“What I’m hearing are a lot of problems and no solutions,” Sara said as she steepled her fingers. Now the kid sounded like Mini Noah.

“Sara, this is something that is really between Cat and me,” Noah reminded her.

Sara rolled her eyes. “Dad, you make it everyone’s business when you’re mooning over each other and then sneaking into alleys to make out.”

Cat covered her eyes with a hand. “Ah, crap.”

“Look, what you two decide to do is your choice. All I’m trying to do is save you the energy of pretending to hide it and asking that you at least consider what a future together could look like.”

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

“I feel like I just sat through a three-day interrogation in the desert,” Cat said, collapsing on a stool in the kitchen.

Sara was upstairs doing her homework and video chatting with April, leaving the mess to the “grown-ups.” She’d gone without a fuss, and Noah considered that a victory.

He slid the last of the plates into the dishwasher and shook his head. “When did she get to be so damn smart? It feels like yesterday she was throwing herself on the floor and screaming because the pictures in her book were upside down because she was holding it upside down.”

It hurt him to think that his little girl worried that he was lonely.

He wasn’t even sure if that was true. Before Cat, his life was… quiet. And now? Everything was so much brighter, busier, louder. And he didn’t mind it.

Cat laughed. “She seems to have gotten wiser since then.”

“Apparently I haven’t. I thought we were pulling one over on everyone,” Noah admitted. He topped off Cat’s wine glass and slid it toward her.