Hannah is staring at her face but Caroline can’t put her thumb on exactly what she is thinking about or where she’s focusing, before she seems to shake herself out of a stupor. “No, they… well, they love to spoil her rotten and buy her affection.” She rolls her eyes. “But I’ve promised that I won’t keep them from Abbie. I don’t want that.” Her voice is determined, like she needs to convince Caroline.

Caroline gives her an encouraging smile. “I know you don’t.”

She knows because even if they hadn’t discussed it in relation to custody agreements, she knows that Hannah wants what’s best for Abbie, including having as many family supports as she can.

Hannah stares at her for a long moment again, before shaking her head slightly and clearing her throat. “God, you came rushing over here and I’m keeping you in the hallway. Come in.”

Hannah and Abbie’s apartment is small – they have a deal on rent because her friend Robyn’s brother is the super – but it’s cozy. Caroline usually only gets glimpses in from the hallway because they’ve never really spent time here. Hannah has pictures up on the walls in the living room, Abbie’s art is in the kitchen, and it feels like a family lives here.

Dark eyes are fixed on Hannah, though. Whose hair is up in a ponytail, light tendrils falling out, and in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, it’s the most dressed down she’s ever seen Hannah. Her collarbones on display make Caroline swallow hard and pointedly look back up to her eyes. Even with that aspect aside, she likes this look. Relaxed.

Only, her face is anything but. Poorly concealed anxiety is written all over her face as she leads Caroline into the kitchen, and it makes her own stomach twist in sympathy.

“I can make you some coffee?”

She’s about to start it, clearly trying to give herself a distraction, before Caroline catches her wrist. “Don’t worry about making me anything. What’s wrong?”

Hannah closes her eyes tightly, before they open again. Worry clearly clouds her vision as she bites her inner-cheek hard. “I’m just… it’s stupid. It’s stupid,” she repeats, taking in a deep breath. “But Abbie hasn’t been away from me for this long in years. Since the last time her grandparents took her for a weekend. And that was when Michael and I were married. I don’t know, there’s just something –” Breaking off, she scrubs a hand over her face, her movements jerky with distress, but when she looks back at Caroline, her eyes are wet with the tears she’d been trying to wipe away.