OK, Melissa finally signed. FINE. NEED COLOR.

I got up and yanked open the top drawer of my dresser, rummaging around a bit until I found what I was looking for. It was a soft red winter hat with a flower knitted onto the side. I thought it was cute but never had much occasion to wear it.

Melissa gave a thumbs-up and signed, PERFECT, when I showed her the hat.

NEED CHANGE, I signed, grabbing my iPad off the floor. HE SHOW UP SOON.

Melissa waved frantically at me so I wouldn’t end the call after I signed my good-bye, and she signed, NO KISS FIRST DATE.

My jaw dropped, and the first thing I thought to sign was, NEVER!

I ended the call with Melissa after promising to send her updates via text on how the date was going. After I got changed, stuffed my feet into my boots, and got my hat on as nicely as possible, I dashed off to the bathroom to brush my teeth. No way was I walking into my first date with bad breath.

The lights in the hallway started flashing on and off when my mouth was still full of toothpaste, so I figured Beau must have just arrived. I finished up in the bathroom as quickly as possible and barely remembered to take my hearing aids out and put them back in their case on my dresser before sprinting downstairs. Any time wet stuff started falling from the sky I did not wear my hearing aids.

I was short of breath when I made it to the bottom of the stairs, grabbing at the handrail. Beau was here on time like I knew he would be, but I was taken aback to see him on the couch next to Connor, Spider-Man action figure in hand, looking like he’d been at play with my little brother for ages. Beau was a nice guy, but it was just . . . not what I expected, seeing him with Connor like this.

I couldn’t think of a time when I hadn’t felt fiercely protective of Connor, wanting to shield him from everything I possibly could out there in the world, but this, unbelievably, was not one of those times. I stood there at the bottom of the stairs watching my little brother laughing and playing with Beau, and the only thing I could think of to do was smile.

This was genuine—there was no mistaking any smile of Beau’s where you could see his dimples—and I wasn’t sure how to handle the variety of emotions bouncing around inside me.

Mom looked just as surprised as I felt when she came walking out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in hand and saw Beau and Connor together.

B-E-A-U YOUR DATE? she signed to me with one hand, nodding toward the couch.