Jake’s face changed.
“Then I don’t want her.”
Immediate.
No hesitation.
Avery looked up.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“But also, Sophia has given me no reason to think that.”
“She came because of me.”
“What?”
“Date.”
“I told Maya to set you up.”
Jake stared.
“You what?”
Avery looked guilty.
“I told her you were lonely.”
“I am going to fire a ten-year-old from matchmaking.”
“Dad.”
He started laughing.
Avery tried not to.
Then did.
Jake hugged her.
She buried face in chest.
He whispered:
“You never have to earn your place with me.”
“Okay?”
She nodded.
The next morning, Jake told Sophia.
Not every detail.
Enough.
Sophia listened.
Then said:
“We should slow down.”
Jake frowned.
“You want to stop?”
“No.”
“I said slow down.”
“She needs to see I’m not arriving like weather.”
Jake smiled.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I don’t show up every day.”
“I don’t buy her things.”
“I don’t try to become favorite adult.”
“I let you be father.”
“She gets time.”
Jake looked at her.
“You’ve thought about this.”
“I had stepmother.”
“Bad?”
“Not evil.”
“Just very enthusiastic.”
“She arrived with matching bathrobes and a mother-daughter spa reservation three weeks after meeting me.”
Jake winced.
“I was fourteen.”
“War crime.”
“Exactly.”
They laughed.
Sophia did what she said.
She did not force closeness.
When she saw Avery, she talked normally.
No gifts beyond a paperback book once because Avery had mentioned wanting it.
She asked before attending school events.
She never called herself anything except Sophia.
Slowly, Avery stopped watching her like possible intruder.
One Saturday, Jake found them sitting on shop floor together, both covered in grease.
Avery was learning to change brake pads on an old practice assembly.
Sophia held manual.
Jake stopped.
“What is this?”
Avery said:
“She wanted to learn.”
Sophia looked up.
“You said cars are machines.”
“I am proving capable.”
Jake inspected.
“You put inside pad backward.”
Sophia stared.
Avery burst laughing.
“You said it looked right!”
“It did.”
Jake crouched.
“Nothing in brake assembly cares how confident you feel.”
Sophia looked at Avery.
“Your father uses cars as life philosophy.”
“Constantly.”
They laughed together.
Jake looked at them.
Something inside his chest opened and hurt at the same time.
Claire would have liked Sophia.
The thought came without permission.
He stepped away.
Sophia noticed.
Later she found him outside.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”