“Zoey, it’s gonna be okay.” Mike’s voice brought her out of her spiral. “You’ve got a great lawyer on your side, and we’ll take care of this.”

“You promise?”

“I promise we’ll find a way through it. Together.” He squeezed her fingers. “Have I ever let you down?”

He held her gaze. She’d missed her friend so damn much. “You’ve never let me down.”

He grinned. “I’ll take care of this. The zoning meeting is a week from now, and we’ll be ready.” He reached for her, but she leaned away.

“Hazel’s inside.”

She didn’t intend to sound so quick and cold, but fear did funny things to a person. It had taken every bit of her strength to talk things over—and over—with her daughter. To convince her not to move in with her dad full-time. To convince her that this old house was their home. Just them—two women together against the world. No boys allowed. At least not anytime soon.

Mike sighed heavily. “Babe, you keep insisting that loving me and loving your daughter are two separate things. As if doing both at the same time will lead to something horrific, like that chemical fire I set off in the high school science lab.” His mouth twitched, almost smiling at the memory.

She stared at him in disbelief. “Loving you did lead to disaster, or have you forgotten that we traumatized my thirteen-year-old daughter last week?”

“What happened last week was...not great,” he conceded. “But it was an accident—a combination of circumstances no one could have predicted. And it was a shock for Hazel. Not because she caught us clowning around...while we happened to be undressed.” He leaned forward, taking her hand back and holding on, waiting until she met his gaze before continuing. “It was a shock because we hadn’t told her anything about our relationship. I know I let you take the lead on that decision, but Zoey...it was a mistake not to tell her.”

“I was just trying to be a good mom.”

“You are a good mom.” Mike raised her hand and kissed her knuckles. “And I don’t need to be an actual parent to see that. You’re the best person I’ve ever known, so you can’t possibly be a bad mother. I just spent over an hour with that kid of yours, and you have raised one awesome young human. She’s the spitting image of you.”

Now it was Zoey’s turn to try to keep from smiling. She failed. “Sometimes it’s like looking in a mirror.”

“I’ll bet.” The lines around his eyes eased a bit. “So I’ll have two of you to deal with.”

Zoey pulled back again. “Not so fast. We still need to wait before we...go any further together.”