Zoey laughed. “Not quite your whole life, but for the next forty years or so. Sorry. Being a woman is not awful. Our bodies are incredible. The mood swings are...challenging.” She cupped her daughter’s face in her hands. “But it won’t always feel so out of control. You won’t be in puberty forever. You’ll learn to know why you’re getting emotional, and you’ll learn how to control it...to a point. It’s a lot easier when you embrace it instead of fighting it.”

Hazel looked skeptical, then she blinked a few times and pulled away. Heaven forbid her strong-willed daughter give in to uncertainty for more than a minute.

“So you’re saying I need to pack some tampons this weekend? I don’t know if there are any at his place. What if Dad sees them?”

Zoey pinched her lips together to keep from laughing. Chris had always hated shopping for feminine products. Thinking of him squirming if Hazel asked him to stock tampons gave her a perverse spark of pleasure—no sense denying it. “Your father is very aware that you are female. And since you’re his daughter, he clearly understands how the reproductive system works. Don’t be afraid to discuss it with him.” She stood, grabbing a nearby pair of jeans and rolling them up before packing them in the small bag. “Don’t ever be ashamed of something so natural.”

In the blink of an eye her little girl was going to be a woman. In five years she’d graduate. Then college. Then off to live her life.

A FEW HOURS LATER, Zoey was telling Mike all about it. “I can’t wrap my head around the idea that I could be a grandmother someday. Do I look like a grandmother to you?”

Mike was leaning back in the wooden chair her dad used to use. His feet were propped on a big box of vacuum cleaner belts, his red plastic cup resting on his stomach. He lifted it to take another sip of wine, shaking his head emphatically.

“I learned a very long time ago to never respond to a woman asking my opinion on how she looks.”

“You’re supposed to be my friend. My friend would be honest with me.”

He huffed out a laugh. “Your friend is being honest. That question is a trap and I’m honestly not going to answer it. But I’ll say this much...you’ll make a terrific grandmother someday. You’ve done a great job with Hazel. I assume she ended up going to Chris’s after all that?”