Her eyes dropped to her lap. “So, this is really embarrassing to admit, and I’m sorry, but I heard your conversation the night you came over a couple weeks ago.”

“Oh.” I shifted uncomfortably in my chair.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I swear.” Now her eyes met mine—they were sincere and worried. “But I couldn’t help it.”

“It’s okay,” I said, wanting to put her at ease. “I’m sorry if you were upset by anything you heard.”

She opened her mouth, closed it, squirmed in her seat, and took another breath. “Did you mean it? What you said? Do you really love my mom?”

For a moment, I was completely taken aback. But I recovered quickly and looked her right in the eye. “Yes, I meant it. Yes, I’m in love with your mom.”

“How do you know?”

“What?”

“How do you know you’re in love with her?”

At first I wasn’t sure how to answer the question—but then I pictured Sylvia, and the ache in my chest intensified. “Because when I think about her, my heart races. Because when she’s in the room, I can hardly breathe. Because I want to be with her all the time. Because I want to do things for her that make her smile. Because when she’s happy, I’m happy. Because she’s the first person in my head when I wake up, the last person I think about before I fall asleep, and the only person in the world who makes me feel like I’m the person I want to be.”

Whitney blinked. “Sheesh.”

I ran a hand through my hair, embarrassed. “I’m sorry if that upsets you, but I’m a person who believes in telling the truth.”

“I’m not upset. I want you to love her like that.”

“You do?”

“Yes. See, when I first saw you together, I was really worried, because of what my dad did. He just left us for this other woman, and it ruined our family. I feel like I don’t even know my dad anymore. I feel like I don’t even have a dad anymore, like he was just pretending to care all those years.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.” But I wanted to smash my fist in his face for making her think that.

“Maybe, maybe not. But anyway, the thought of losing my mom the way I lost my dad made me panic. I begged her not to be with you, because I thought you’d take her from us like Kimmy took my dad. And then we’d really be alone.”

I swallowed hard. “That’s understandable.”