“I don’t have to do anything. Norah will love it and I have tomorrow off, too. If you want to just pick Abbie up after work, that’s really okay. I don’t mind.”

The offer to watch Abbie comes out before she can truly think about it, but when she does think it over a moment later, she finds that she means it. What else does she have going on tomorrow?

The dubious expression on Hannah’s face doesn’t completely melt away, like she’s waiting any moment for Caroline to say gotcha! She just squeezes her hand still encased by Hannah’s and smiles.

***

Hannah’s knock on her door the following day is tentative.

Caroline answers it quickly, having kept tabs of Hannah from her very frequent texts.

There’s a clear tightness in Hannah’s smile as she peers easily over Caroline’s shoulder, clearly looking for Abbie. She’d been nervous at Abbie staying the night, Caroline knows. Especially because when their outing at the zoo had been drawing to a close, Hannah had given Caroline the option to back out of the sleepover twice.

“Abbie’s reading in the blanket fort,” she informs Hannah, leading her through her condo.

She doesn’t miss the way Hannah looks around, taking in Caroline’s purchased photographs mixed with her personal ones with her family, of the friend group she’s maintained since college, and of her travels.

“How was she?” Hannah asks, her eyes still scanning over everything before they wind up in Caroline’s living room.

“She was great. Norah had a lot of fun with someone else her own age for once. Her other girl cousins are either too young for her or there’s Melissa, who feels she’s too old,” Caroline fondly rolls her eyes. “Not that I don’t make some fabulous company, if I do say so myself.”

As soon as Abbie hears her mom’s voice, she comes clambering out of the blanket fort she and Norah had made with Caroline’s help, that takes up most of the free space in the living room. “Mom! We had the best time. Did you know that Norah goes to my school? She’s in fifth grade, though, but we can see each other during recess. Caroline let us bake cookies and she has a thousand pillows for the fort.”

Abbie’s blonde hair is mussed from having crawled out of the blankets, but her excitement is easily palpable. It makes Caroline smile all over again and it would be impossible to miss the warm grin that takes over Hannah’s face. Her smiles at Abbie are entirely real and big and gorgeous, Caroline noted that yesterday.

“I’m glad you had fun, hon. Why don’t you get your bag so we can head home?”

Abbie’s smile falls. “Do we have to leave? Can’t we hang out with Caroline a little more?”